Can A Phoenix Love A Lion? (Hermione Granger x Male Reader)

9. Reunion at Diagon Alley

It was now the fourth of August. The L/Ns were in France and going back to England seemed impossible William and Poppy wanted to stay. It wasn't difficult to understand: having as holidays setting a mansion in the Alps where everything was magic didn't make you want to return to the real world. Anyway, no one especially wanted to leave soon, so no problem.

Y/N spent a lot of time sending and receiving letters from Hermione and Ron, but none from Harry. He knew that Harry's family was terrible, yet he had never imagined they would forbid him to send letters.

Ron had gone to see his brother Charlie; apparently, he had seen dragons and had pictures, but he never sent them.

Meanwhile, Hermione had gone to visit castles in Walse with her parents and had sent photos–after almost one year of seeing moving pictures, these seemed weird.

Fleur helped Y/N a lot in Charms and Transfiguration. She was going to enter her fifth year at Beauxbatons but she seemed to already know things that six years did at Hogwarts in those class. "At Beauxbatons, we value elegance over brutality," was one of her favourite sentences to explain that–always with a bit of taunt in her voice. However, in the middle of August, Y/N had already done more than half of the second year syllabus of Charms and Transfiguration.

As the end of the holidays came closer, the L/Ns went back to Cotswold. Y/N had to prepare to return to Hogwarts, and that meant going to Diagon Alley. They went by car and, after two hours, arrived at the Leaky Cauldron. The barman greeted them kindly, like the last time, and they went straight to the alley. William and Poppy immediately ran to look through the shops' window while Mrs L/N took her son to Gringotts. He had seen the place one year before, but they hadn't got inside. Once the great door passed, Y/N found himself in a huge hall–not as much as the Great Hall, though–with glimmering lustres. About a hundred goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Mrs L/N went straight to the main counter.

"May I help you?" grumbled a rough voice. Y/N couldn't see the goblin who said it. Either the counter was too tall, either the goblin too small. Maybe both.

"Yes, I'd like to take some money from my vault," said Mrs L/N. It's the 1 050. Here's the key."

"If you'll follow me."

On the counter's side appeared a small, arched, wrinkled goblin going to the left side of the hall. His walk was quite funny, leaning from side to side as if he was about to lose his balance at each step.

The goblin guided them in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. He whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in.

Y/N cried of surprise as it went off. After turning at one hundred miles an hour through the dark caves, the cart stopped. Mrs L/N directly got out and went to a big lead door. The goblin, just before her, unlocked it.

The door opened to reveal a room filled with various objects, like furniture, books or trinkets. But the only thing that interested Mrs L/N at the moment was a little vault, from which she took money - Galleons, Sickles and Knuts.

"Let's go get your books, Y/N," Mrs L/N said.

After having travelled the same path but in the opposite direction–and feared to fall from the cart at least ten times–Y/N got out of Gringotts. His mother went to look for his father, William and Poppy while he went to the bookshop. Once he arrived, he found himself at the end of a long waiting line. After a moment of hesitation, he entered without waiting and nobody remarked him.