text stringlengths 2 72 |
|---|
nothing but a trash can and a few weeds. |
Hagrid grinned at Harry. |
"Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous. Even Professor Quirrell |
was tremblin' ter meet yeh -- mind you, he's usually tremblin'." |
"Is he always that nervous?" |
"Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was |
studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some firsthand |
experience.... They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there |
was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag -- never been the same since. |
Scared of the students, scared of his own subject now, where's me |
umbrella?" |
Vampires? Hags? Harry's head was swimming. Hagrid, meanwhile, was |
counting bricks in the wall above the trash can. |
"Three up... two across he muttered. "Right, stand back, Harry." |
He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella. |
The brick he had touched quivered -- it wriggled -- in the middle, a |
small hole appeared -- it grew wider and wider -- a second later they |
were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a |
cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight. |
"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley." |
He grinned at Harry's amazement. They stepped through the archway. Harry |
looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly |
back into solid wall. |
The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. |
Cauldrons -- All Sizes - Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver -- Self-Stirring |
-- Collapsible, said a sign hanging over them. |
"Yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money |
first." |
Harry wished he had about eight more eyes. He turned his head in every |
direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at |
once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their |
shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as |
they passed, saying, "Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're |
mad...." |
A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl |
Emporium -- Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy. Several boys of |
about Harry's age had their noses pressed against a window with |
broomsticks in it. "Look," Harry heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus |
Two Thousand -- fastest ever --" There were shops selling robes, shops |
selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen |
before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, |
tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion |
bottles, globes of the moon.... |
"Gringotts," said Hagrid. |
They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other |
little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a |
uniform of scarlet and gold, was - |
"Yeah, that's a goblin," said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white |
stone steps toward him. The goblin was about a head shorter than Harry. |
He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very |
long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were |
facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved |
upon them: |
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. |
"Like I said, Yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," said Hagrid. |
A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a |
vast marble hall. About a hundred more 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. Hagrid and Harry made |
for the counter. |
"Morning," said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money |
outta Mr. Harry Potter's safe." |
"You have his key, Sir?" |
"Got it here somewhere," said Hagrid, and he started emptying his |
pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog biscuits |
over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose. Harry |
watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as |
glowing coals. |
"Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden key. |
The goblin looked at it closely. |
"That seems to be in order." |
"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid |
importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the YouKnow-What in |
vault seven hundred and thirteen." |
The goblin read the letter carefully. |
"Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have Someone |
take you down to both vaults. Griphook!" |
Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog |
biscuits back inside his pockets, he and Harry followed Griphook toward |
one of the doors leading off the hall. |
"What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry |
asked. |
"Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts |
business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh |
that." |
Griphook held the door open for them. Harry, who had expected more |
marble, was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with |
flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little |
railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came |
hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in -- Hagrid with some |
difficulty -- and were off. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.