Chapter 4: Diagon Alley
Harry leaped out the still-open living room window to evade Dudley. He rolled on the grass, scrambled to his feet, and ran, before Dudley could get out the window himself- or get his aunt or uncle to chase him. He didn’t feel like listening to the yelling again just yet.
But where would he go? He could go to the playpark, or perhaps…
He stopped as he reached the corner, and looked back at Privet Drive. He remembered enough maps from his various classes to know how to get from here to London- and where Charing Cross Road was, where that invisible building was.
And he knew it would only be about an hour’s walk- he could be back by dinner without any difficulty whatsoever.
He set off.
Harry knew he was in the right place when he saw the news van across the street from a small army of funny-haired eleven-year-olds that seemed to be walking to and from a side alley.
When Harry looked in that alley, they seemed to be appearing from- and disappearing back into- thin air near the back of it.
He shrugged, then tagged along behind a party of girls going away from that alley.
They walked only about halfway down the block before they reached the pub… which, interestingly enough, Harry could see just fine, even though there were several people- including two separate news vans, one of which looked to be making a live broadcast- all talking about how they couldn’t see it with their naked eyes. None of the funny-haired girls seemed to be having any issues with finding it either, before he allowed himself to get swept inside. Once inside, he stepped sideways out of the column of girls and looked around.
It was… a very strange pub, on the inside. It still had some of the ‘dingy pub’ appearance on the inside, but some of that had been covered with what looked like party decorations… and in one corner was what looked like a small lake of icing with cake-bergs in it and a few more funny-haired children- no, these were also all girls- mopping it up. They were using a couple of mops, several buckets, and a few shovels as well. There were several cakes set out around the room- cakes that looked large enough for him to kneel inside.
There were a few adults around, but almost everyone was about his age and had funny hair. He was just trying to figure out where everyone was going- somewhere in the back of the pub, he couldn’t see over the crowd- when one of the girls pranced up to him. “Oh hey! Welcome to the Leaky Cauldron, the Gateway to the Wizarding World!”
Harry looked at her… and stared. It wasn’t that the girl’s fluffy hair was bubblegum pink so much as that it fairly dribbled down to her waist, and that her entire right side- clothes, hair, and all- was practically layered in icing, like the cake had fallen on her. “What-?” he began.
She offered him a neat slice of cake, with a clean fork, on a plate. “Cake?”
“What happened?” he asked, still staring at all the icing.
She glanced down at herself, then rolled her eyes. “Oh, that. I was putting up the banner a few minutes ago when my grip on the whittlies slipped and I fell right on top of that cake.” She pointed towards the icing lake.
“Ahh,” Harry muttered, looking. Then he looked up. “What banner?” He didn’t see any.
She shook her head. “It got torn into a dozen pieces when I fell, so I threw it away.” She heaved a sigh. “But I guess it’s progress.” She looked out across the room. “Just two weeks ago, I hadn’t realized how different the whittlies are over here so the place nearly caught fire!”
“Whittlies…?” Harry began.
“Don’t ask,” another girl interrupted, approaching from the side. “Nobody understands Pinkie Pie.”
Harry looked at her. She had a white stripe down the middle of her wavy purple hair, and a bright smile. “Ahh,” he began.
“It’s true,” the pink-haired girl mused, putting an icing-covered finger to her chin. “Even Twilight couldn’t. And she nearly caught fire from the effort!” She made it sound like an achievement.
“...Alright,” Harry muttered slowly.
“Anyways, if you’re hungry for anything sugary, Pinkie’s cakes are some of the best you’ll ever taste- even with the ‘local whittlies not cooperating very well’, as she puts it.” She gestured towards the pink-haired girl, who giggled softly.
“Ahh… Sure,” Harry decided, and accepted the cake.
The girl then fairly shot across the room, zig-zagging between tables and other patrons- up until she tripped over a misplaced chair, it seemed, and went flying straight into one of the cakes standing around the room.
The cake… exploded, almost exclusively into the icing lake, easily tripling the amount of icing and cake-bergs on the floor- and the girl was now completely covered in it as she slid to a stop.
Meanwhile, the girls that had been cleaning up the mess also got covered.
“Pinkie!” one of them cried exasperatedly.
The other girl rolled her eyes. “Sorry about that. Back where we come from, a Pinkie Party is one of the best parties you’ll ever attend. Here… I don’t think she’s figured out how to throw one without the magic of our home just yet.”
“Okay then,” Harry muttered.
She turned back to him, then held out a hand. “Anyways, I’m Diamond Tiara, and it’s nice to meet you. You… don’t happen to be going to Hogwarts, do you?”
“Hogwarts?” Harry asked.
“Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,” she answered promptly.
“Oh,” he said, as if that explained everything. “Well, I’m not a wizard or anything, so I don’t think so.”
“Not a wizard?” she asked, looking surprised. “But… I mean, you saw the Leaky Cauldron, right?”
He nodded. “Yes?”
“With your naked eyes, not a camera?”
“Yeah?”
“And you’re not a squib- that is, born to a witch and wizard?”
“Uh, no, I’m not a… whatever you called it.”
“Squib,” she repeated. “Then there’s only one option left: You’re a wizard, and just don’t know it yet.” She shrugged. “If you weren’t either a wizard or a squib, you wouldn’t have seen the Leaky Cauldron.”
“... Alright,” he muttered slowly. “So I guess I’m a wizard. Despite all the evidence.”
“Any letters from Hogwarts?”
He shook his head. “Someone has been trying to send me a letter, but the Dursleys have kept them from me. It’s getting interesting, trying to predict how the next batch will arrive.” He smiled, and gave a chuckle. “This morning, they were inside the eggs.”
Diamond stared at him. “That’s… interesting. But without a letter, we can’t be sure if you’ve been invited, so…” She shrugged. “You can tag along if you want, maybe see if Gringotts will give you anything, but other than that, I’m not sure what you really can do right now.”
He shrugged. “Yeah, why not?”
He was lucky, when he got back long after bedtime, that Dudley had broken the latch on the downstairs window by trying to climb out of it. As a result, the window slid open without any resistance. Harry climbed inside, trying to ignore the tiny golden key in his pocket, closed the window again, and sneaked upstairs to his bedroom.
“No post on Sunday,” Vernon told everyone at breakfast.
“After the last few times, I rather doubt that’ll stop the letters,” Harry noted.
Vernon opened his mouth to retort, but something struck him in the back of his head just in time. Harry, deciding it would be too obvious if he tried to catch one, joined Petunia and Dudley in fleeing the room.
“I wonder if there’s going to be any letters?” Harry mused aloud, while they were finishing breakfast at the hotel.
All three Dursleys looked at him.
He shrugged. “Just because if they don’t come now, they won’t at all.”
“ ‘Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H Potter? Only I got about an ‘undred of these at the front desk.”
Vernon leaped up. “I’ll take them,” he announced, while Harry laughed at his own timing.
“Found the perfect place,” Vernon announced, pointing.
Harry looked at the tiny shack on the rock. “It’s going to be interesting finding out how two hundred letters plan on getting there tomorrow,” he mused, rubbing his chin.
Vernon ignored him. “Storm forecast for tonight!”
Harry nodded. “Very interesting, then.”
“Could do with some of those letters now, eh?” Vernon chuckled, after the chip bags shrivelled up in the fireplace.
Harry chuckled with him. He’d spent his free time so far exploring the hut. He didn’t see any way for mail to get into it, except only the front door. He wondered, silently this time, how long Vernon was planning on staying here.
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Deeeeeeeelicious!
love how harry turned this into a game. he KNOWS it won't stop...
Yum! Cake!
And time for Hagrid and Dudley the Pig!
Pinkie magic isn't working right?
Interesting
Harry never introduced himself. If he had said who he was, in earshot of ANY wizard or witch, he would have been swarmed.
Heck, if any witch or wizard saw his scar, he'd have been asked "Are you Harry Potter?". Harry would have said yes, and the wizard or witch that asked would likely start questioning him about why someone from Hogwarts wasn't personally escorting him to get his supplies for Hogwarts.
Only one issue, the Equestrians should not be 100% female, there should be some oddly haired boys too. I notice this in a LOT of Harry Potter crossover Fics, there his a very obvious lack of Equestrian males, to the point too often aside from Big Mac none are mentioned and none of the Equestrian OCs are male. The pony population is not 90% female, it's 60-65% at most.
10871771
yep weird, tried to make explanations, but they'd also have to take mares in.
The only one I'd be able to say, is most adult stallions are in the guard somehow...
But then the same goes for mares, how can you leave your buisness behind for most of the year ? Apples are an important part of food supply, what about parents of all too young foals ? What of more ponies bound to their jobs on contracts ?
How can what seems to be almost all of Equestria's population leave, without the structures supporting those few that can't collapsing ?
10871896
Yep it's clear that while all ponies appear as children the majority who got letters decided to go to Hogwarts are going to be colts and fillies, most adults will not have the option. It's even questionable if all of Mane 6 can attend. Most can't/won't go, not with out arrangements to make up for thier absence. It's a thing to consider when crossing over MLP with Harry Potter,not just logistics but desire! Wizard Children in the Harry Potter pretty much have to go to a wizard school or the whole of the wizarding world collapses. In Equestria Magic school is a standard option that a lot of adult ponies would have little to no inclination to attend because spellcasting is not vital to thier vocation.
In this story by the rules of both worlds the actual numbers of ponies who attend Hogwarts will be quickly cut down as it's realized a good number of the potential students are basically adults with no reason to go to wizard school. None of the Military, no pony with an established career, no pony in a vital field, no pony artists or musicians and further lots of non-unicorns will dismiss the idea as silly or useless "Now why would I need to learn to cast spells when I ain't got no horn?"
Little Whinging is in Surrey. Diagon Alley is in London. There's at least 25 miles between them. Harry isn't walking there in an hour, not without magic.
10872073
https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Little_Whinging
10871764
Oh yes. Fortunately, there were enough Equestrians about (and he in the thick of them) that nobody noticed...
10871771
All the show characters seem to be female...
And in this case? It's just girls that happen to be present. The boys, just like in Equestria, are simply elsewhere. Don't worry, I often involve other male Equestrian characters, and have in past iterations as well... though never as main characters.
10871896
This is a very good question- and the fact that it's only about 10% of the population that both A) is old enough to go to Hogwarts, and B) will ever go to Hogwarts... it just doesn't do enough to shut down that theory, since all six Element Bearers do come up at some point or another (they usually do, don't they?) So, I have no idea, and honestly, it's not a plothole I'm all that worried about closing.
10872073
I'm actually aware of this, and decided to make a deliberate break from "reality" here- because I needed Harry to hit Diagon Alley before meeting Hagrid, yet still meet Hagrid later, in order to set the stage for some future events way down the line.
10872162
Fortunately once they realize how few Equestrians will actually attend there will be less panic.
Nice
10872162
I have seen it mentioned in other stories that Ponies gender ratio is 6:1 in favor of females.
Equus as a whole is about 3:1, due to some of the other sapient species having more males than females.
10871610
No Equestrian magic
10878137
I think it's more like the British measure money, they gave 5 pounds of silver to a galleon. Which probably means that without thinking too hard about it 1 gold coin =17 silver coins
(Based on the history anyway sterling silver coins are made of 92% silver)
10878577
I stayed silent about this issue but in my mind Philosopher stones are the product of dark magic and sorcery.
10878638
This is certainly possible, yes. It's definitely a tightly guarded magic, and possibly one that requires an incredibly powerful enchanter to complete- say, one in possession of the Elder Wand (Yes, I know, the Stone was created around six hundred years before Dumbledore got that) or an Alicorn.
Dursleys vs The Letters : so far, Dursleys zero, the Letters still counting.
I suddenly reeeeaaallly wanna see pinkie and luna meet
11193611
Unfortunately, we’re likely never going to see that; I’m generally bad at writing both Pinkie and Luna, so…
huh...Harry seems to have a better relationship with the Dursleys than usual. Good, it's nice to see them not acting like 80's cartoon villains.
Definitely something weird going on with the Equestrians, though. Diamond seems the right age, but the others seem aged down.