{Alley next to the Leaky Cauldron}
'Fuck,' I cursed as I nearly stumbled and put my hand against the nearby wall. I have taken plenty of roller coaster rides in my life... well, my past life, but nothing could have prepared me for that.
"Feeling alright there, Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger. It's not an uncommon reaction to apparation. I'm just glad that none of you felt the urge to paint the walls yellow." Prof. McGonagall said with her ever-clipped tone. Her accent bleeding through as she pointed her wand toward me and said, "Your hand, Mr. Potter."
I pushed the wall away with my hand and looked at it, it was covered with dust and grime. Before I could habitually dust it away with the back of my hand, a spell collided with it, and I felt my hand scrubbed by a raw sponge.
"Scroungify~" Prof. McGonagall cast before she put her wand away, her eyes turning to Hermione, who was staring at my now-clean hand in wonder.
"I'm quite surprised that you trusted that magic existed without asking any questions, Mr. Potter. Most students who have spent their lives in the Muggle world do not believe magic exists this easily." Prof. McGonagall said as she motioned for us to follow, and we made our way toward the alley's exit.
"Well, Professor," I stalled. It's not like I had a good excuse. I can't exactly tell her that there is a floating window above her head that told me who she was and that I had foreknowledge about her fate and mine.
"I don't believe you would gain anything by making a fool out of me. I'm not exactly anyone special," I replied as I shrugged, dialing down on my current identity of being an ordinary, clueless orphan who knew nothing about the magical world.
"...Trust me, Mr. Potter, you are anything but ordinary." Prof. McGonagall commented after taking my words in. She walked over to the black building that looked as if it had been burned to charcoal. She turned around and said, "Welcome home, Mr. Potter."
The door was pushed open by her as we were quickly ushered into the somewhat dimly lit pub. The first thing I noticed was the lack of light, with candles floating around the small space providing enough light to see the pub. Plenty of wizards and witches were walking around, wearing all manner of robes and other long, flowing garments.
My eyes flicked around as I took notice of the names and numbers hovering over the women's heads. The wizards were excluded from this special power of mine. It seemed to have taken my personal preferences into account. Still, the numbers hovering ranged from 5 to 10. No one went below that range.
"Welcome to Leaky Cauldron. We can have a taste of Tom's cooking some other time, as we have some appointments we have to keep. Come along, follow me." She said as we quickly navigated through the crowd, with plenty of people shouting out a greeting to Prof. McGonagall, as we arrived through a locked door into... a dead end, or at least what looked like one.
"Uh, Prof. McGonagall, did we take the wrong door?" Hermione asked, finally saying something after a long time. She was uncharacteristically quiet, not at all like the chatterbox know-it-all she was in the movie.
"Not quite, Miss Granger. You would do well to remember that not everything is as it appears," She said as she tapped her wand around the indent that looked like missing bricks.
As soon as she did that, the bricks broke free from their mold and started to move. They went in and out before they folded amongst themselves and rearranged themselves to reveal the real entrance to Diagon Alley. I knew what was going to happen, and I still stared at the transformation.
Looking at the moving bricks and the buildings that were leaning against each other, it finally hit me again where I was. I was in the Harry Potter universe, and I was going to go to Hogwarts.
'Sure, I would have loved it if I were anyone other than Harry, but I'll take what I can get.' I thought.
"How on earth are those buildings still standing? The strain on the lower columns would have meant that they should have toppled long ago," Hermione muttered as she too stared at the crisscross street in amazement and confusion.
"I think Newton would not be happy with the Wizarding world. I don't think his laws apply here," I quipped, getting a smile out of Hermione as she shook her head.
"Let's go, Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, before we buy all the bits and bobs that are mentioned in your letter, we need to go to Gringotts to apply for your scholarship, Ms. Granger, and to get money for your supplies, Mr. Potter." Professor McGonagall said as we slowly but surely made our way to the big, crooked, white building that had the name 'Gringotts Bank' carved into the stone.
The only place we even slowed down slightly was the Quidditch shop where Prof. McGonagall had a quick peek at the newly displayed Nimbus 2000.
'Wait, what year is it? How does the timeline exactly work here?' I thought as I looked around; there were no newspapers in sight, so I might have to table that thought for a later date, but the cars that I had barely paid attention to outside the Charing Cross Road seemed fairly modern.
"Here we are, the wizarding bank." Prof. McGonagall said, "Be careful and don't react too adversely when you get inside."
As we arrived through the doors, Hermione questioned, "Why would we react adver-...." Her voice faded, and I turned to look at her, staring at the goblins in shock. I grabbed her hand and pulled her, not wanting her to make a scene.
"I take that back," she finally muttered as she gave my hand a squeeze, which was my cue to let it go. Still, she gave me a grateful nod and took a couple of steps closer to me as we both followed Prof. McGonagall to the first open teller.
"Ahem," Prof. McGonagall cleared her throat to get the teller's attention and then spoke, "Mr. Harry Potter would like to make a withdrawal from his trust vault, and Miss Hermione Granger would like her scholarship loan approval forms."
"And does Mr. Harry Potter have his key?" The goblin spoke with sharp triangular teeth as he looked at me.
"Yes, it is right here," she said, turning to hand me a golden key.
I looked at it and then shook it toward the goblin for good measure, my mind going back to the scene of Harry opening his vault to see it swimming with galleons.
'Fuck being someone else, I'm Harry Potter, and I'm fucking rich... I'm Batman... okay, maybe not Batman.'