He gently smiled at Alexandra's evident amazement. She thanked the barman, and then stepped through the archway. Alexandra looked rapidly behind her and saw the entrance shrink instantly back into solid wall. Wow, that was impressive.
The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest building. Cauldrons – All Sizes – Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver, Self-Stirring, and Collapsible said the sign over the shop.
There was a cauldron on her shopping list, but as she had no wizarding money at the present time, it would have to wait. She had no idea what "Galleons", "Sickles" and "Knuts" were on the price signs, but she was ready to bet the shops she saw didn't accept the pounds she was used to.
Not that the lack of money forbade her to look. In every direction the magical shops were spread in a manner which was borderline chaotic. Some buildings looked structurally strange, as if only magic was the only thing that stopped a fall of their roof or one of their floors. On the positive side, the alley was certainly not boring. While she attracted her fair share of disapproving stares by being one of the rare persons not wearing a robe, or clothes that were perhaps fashionable in the seventeenth century, the shops and the peculiar winding street was spectacular. The atmosphere was full of different smells, noises and colours. Magic was everywhere; in the windows and the signs of the shops, in the air, in the inhabitants, and in the people doing their shopping.
Somehow, she wished she had more eyes and senses to see everything. Fascinating ingredients like dragon's or manticore's blood were on display in the apothecary's showcase. A lot of hooting came from a great shop with a sign saying 'Eeylops Owl Emporium – Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown and Snowy'. A salesman of a newspaper was shouting in one corner selling something called the Daily Prophet. One shop had several kids of her own age and younger who pressed their faces against the windows to admire what looked to be racing brooms.
"Look," Alexandra heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand – the fastest broom ever –". The prices here looked to have a lot of zeros, though. There were also shops selling robes and different sorts of hats and clothes. Some shops sold telescopes and strange silver instruments. Alexandra had no clue what their purpose was. A potions supply shop window had a display stacked with disgusting things like barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes. Bookshops displayed towering piles of magical books, quills and rolls of parchment, globes of the different planets of the Solar System, potion bottles…
Then she arrived at her first destination; Gringotts, the wizarding bank. It was impossible to miss, the bank was massive. It kind of stood out from the small disorganised shops she had just passed on her way. Its colour was snowy-white, and at least ten times the size of the biggest shop she had seen so far. Apparently, being a banker paid very well. That or the nature of the bankers was the reason. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing uniforms of scarlet and gold, the creatures were clearly not human. One wizard muttering over some financial dispute was overheard saying "Bloody goblins…" Cool. Now she had a name for them.
As she walked up the white stone steps towards the entrance of the bank, she was able to study the goblin guards more precisely. The goblins were about a head shorter than Alexandra. Most of them had a swarthy face and a pointed beard. Alexandra noticed the goblins had all very long fingers and feet. Oh, and some of them had spears and swords, which looked extremely well maintained and extremely dangerous. They bowed as she walked inside. Now she was facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:
Alexandra gulped. If she had had any ideas of stealing something here, then these ideas were forgotten right now. She didn't want to imagine what the goblins did to thieves who had failed to heed the warning. Not something pleasant she was ready to bet.
A pair of goblins bowed to her through the silver doors and she entered in a vast hall entirely built in marble. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins on brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. About the same number of goblins, but these ones fiercer and more dangerous mounted guard in the corners and the backside, all armed like they were ready to go to battle at any moment. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Seeing apparently there was no waiting line or any kind of order like in a normal establishment, she walked towards the stools that stood empty.
"Good morning," said Alexandra to a free goblin, therefore bringing the goblin's attention to her. Alexandra had not the height to reach the top of the counter, so the goblin had to tilt his head down quite a way to see her. "I was told that my parents owned a vault I can withdraw gold from."
According to Aunt Petunia, her mother had once confided in her that Alexandra's father's family, the Potters, were old family money. She didn't know how much this assertion was worth, knowing her aunt, but it had given her the idea to directly go to the bank. Else she would have to hope for Hogwarts to give her a small tuition to buy her supplies.
"You have your key, miss?"
"No, I don't."
The goblin peered down at her with an ugly sneer on its face. Of course, it had been sneering before it even looked at Alexandra, so she just had to hope a sneering expression wasn't too bad, as she was far from a specialist in goblin behaviour.