7 No.11, Private Drive
As he came out, he was hit by the hustle bustle of the famous wizard street. There were lots of people moving about talking and shouting. There were delivery owls flying over his head along with delivery parchments.
He saw the cobblestoned shopping street that had everything you needed for Hogwarts and much more. It was essentially the largest gathering place of wizards in Great Britain, other than the ministry of magic and Hogwarts.
He saw a lot of shops selling all kinds of magical artifacts, The famous Ollivanders wand shop, The Eeylop's Owl Emporium, Flourish and Blotts bookstore and many others.
But the first stop he had to make was the Gringotts bank, where he needed to exchange the muggle money with Galleons.
He saw the Gringotts building, the white, multistoried marble building that stood imposingly towards the north of the street. He went up the stairs and entered the main hall after going through the small entrance hall. The message engraved on the doors of the main hall really gave him the creeps but he ignored it and went to the nearest empty counter.
There was a goblin sitting on the counter doing some calculations on his abacus. He was muttering under his breath and Danny could only wonder what could be bothering this little guy. He waited a few seconds for the goblin to take notice of him. But since it didn't look like the goblin was going to stop any time soon, he cleared his throat with an 'Ahem'.
The Goblin looked at him annoyedly but as soon as he saw Danny's attire, he looked quite amused and focused on him, presumably trying to look through his disguise. Two seconds later, he realized that he couldn't identify the person standing in front of him so he gave up.
He then welcomed Danny in a raspy voice," Ah forgive me, sir. Welcome to Gringotts. How may I assist you?"
Danny didn't say anything and just put a stack of muggle money over the counter. The goblin understood and after some calculation handed him a bag of Galleons.
After counting, he saw he had almost 500 Galleons, in exchange for 5000 British pounds.
The exchange rate seems to be around 1:10.
It was a pretty good exchange rate for him as he had plenty of money and knew that Galleons had a lot of purchasing power in the wizarding world.
As a result, he exchanged another 500 Galleons and left the bank under the curious stares of the nearby Goblins.
He went straight to the Ollivanders intending to buy a wand, but as he was about to enter the shop, he stopped. He slapped his forehead and cursed himself for being so stupid.
If he went inside now and tried out a wand, he would eventually be chosen by the Phoenix feather wand as in the original story. He suspected that Ollivander was under Dumbledore's instruction to inform him if anyone was ever chosen by that particular wand as the core for it came from his personal pet phoenix, Fawkes. This was also a 'brother' to the wand that chose Tom Riddle. So Dumbledore was very curious as to who would be able to get the approval from the remaining wand.
As such, the moment he bought it, Dumbledore would know and everything he did until now would go down the drain. He would come under suspicion as there was no way that he could have so much information about the magical world while living with the muggles.
So he had to give up on buying his wand for now and instead find some other way to procure a spare one or try using wandless magic until he could get his destined wand when he comes here two years from now.
Next, he went to Flourish and Blotts and bought the course content for the first year. He also bought a few other miscellaneous books from other bookshops such as 'Quidditch Through the Ages', 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them', 'War of the Wizards: A Dark History of the Magical World', etc. The last one he bought specifically to understand the history through an independent source rather than only through course books at Hogwarts which might be a little biased or twisted by the ministry.
He bought a few books on common spells he could use in his daily life and some books detailing the art of combat for wizards. The last one was the costliest book amongst all and the cashier looked at him weirdly while he was paying for the books.
He also went to a second-hand bookstore and bought the same books there. He thought maybe he could get a few insights from the notes the previous readers might have left. So he flipped through a few books quickly and chose the ones with a lot of notes in them.
He would only read these books after he had gone through the fresh ones, so as not to get influenced by somebody else's thoughts. He liked to draw his own conclusions and would only use these books as a reference after he reaches Hogwarts. It would eliminate any mistakes as he could simply consult his professors about any doubts he might have and wouldn't walk on the wrong path.
He also bought a Mokeskin pouch. But he had to make another visit to Gringotts to exchange Galleons since it was much costlier than his expectation.
After checking out, he put everything inside his Mokeskin pouch and went to his next stop, Slug and Jigger's Apothecary. He bought the supplies he needed in order to create potions along with a cauldron. He didn't buy anything costly, just the usual ones for the first years. After that, he went back to the Leaky Cauldron and left Diagon Alley, taking a taxi back to Private Drive.
He was very satisfied with his shopping and couldn't wait to get started on his study of magic.
While he was inside the taxi on his way to his house, he thought of another problem which he had to tackle as soon as possible.
When he had been making plans for his visit to the Diagon Alley, he thought of the practical problems he would face as he practiced magic inside his house.
His uncle and aunt were quite tolerant of his endeavors but it was a strict no when it came to anything directly related to magic.
So, there was no way they would allow him to practice inside their house, especially the potion making part.
Moreover, since he didn't have a wand, he would have to use wandless magic which in its early days would cause a lot of backlashes and could cause some minor destruction in the house.
As such, he decided to buy another place near his uncle's house where he could practice magic without any repercussions.
From his uncle, he came to know that No. 11 was empty as the owner had gone to America and was looking for a buyer.
The best thing about the house was the presence of a basement which the previous owner might have used as a wine cellar.
This suited his requirements perfectly. He could reinforce the basement and use a few charms to block the noise and vibrations which might arise due to his practice. He also needed to a chimney inside the basement to take care of the smoke while he dabbled in potion making.
He had contacted the broker, Mr. Harris last week and expressed his interest in the house. After some haggling, they finalized the price and today he was supposed to pay the deposit.
As he reached his house, he fixed an appointment with Mr. Harris for today. The broker said he could see him in an hour at No.11.
In the meantime, Danny went to the bank and got a cheque made out in the name of the house owner and then went to meet the broker at No.11.
When he reached the place, he saw a middle-aged man, dressed immaculately in a checkered grey suit with white shirt and black tie, holding a black briefcase waiting for him.
Mr. Harris was quite surprised to see such a young child walking towards him. He couldn't believe that a nine-year-old kid had bargained so expertly with him for the house price.
But being a professional, he quickly controlled his thoughts and greeted Danny as he would greet any other client.
They went inside the house and signed the papers. Danny would, of course, need his aunt's signature since she was his legal guardian. So they went to his place and there he got his aunt to sign the papers.
Since he had already explained the use of buying the house to the Dursleys, they didn't make a fuss over it. Instead, were quite happy as Danny would spend most of his time in his own house and not bother them.
As everything was settled, he asked his uncle to help him in getting the basement of No.11 renovated.
Vernon contacted a few people at work and was able to get him a crew who started working on the project from the very next day. It would take around a week to complete the renovations. In the meantime, Danny decided to read the books that he bought from Diagon Alley.
Since he didn't have any wand, it would be almost impossible for him to cast any powerful magic anytime soon, but considering that he had a pretty sizeable mana pool and his control over magic was also decent, he might be able to pull it off with a few weeks of practice.
Initially, he had been worried about the ministry tracing the underage magic use via their 'Trace' charm, but then he remembered that the ministry didn't start tracking the underage magic until you start attending Hogwarts.
It was never mentioned in the original story how the ministry puts a trace on underage wizards.
It was later theorized by fans in his previous world that the 'Trace' spell which the ministry used, was applied when young wizards entered the Hogwarts express for the first time. But he thought that it could also be during the sorting hat ceremony or any such event that is considered to be compulsory for every student starting his first year at Hogwarts, like the boat ride after getting off the Hogwarts express. All these and more rituals that happen as everyone enters Hogwarts for the first time, could be used to cast a trace charm over them en mass. Thus, until he enters Hogwarts, he would be free of any kind of trace from the ministry.
Deciding on the next course of actions, he went back to his meditation. Even though he no longer needed it, he decided to keep doing this in the future. It has proved extremely beneficial for him along with the physical training. So, he would not give up on either of them. But he would have to cut down the time as he now had a lot more to do.
After an hour, he opened the 'Hogwarts: A History' and started reading.
He wanted to understand the magical world of Hogwarts before making any kind of training plans. So, he read the entire book twice and then started the 'War of the Wizards: A Dark History of the Magical World'.
As he read this book, his mood got more and more gloomy as he finally started to realize that this was the real world and not the fictional world that he read about in his previous life. This put him under a terrible mood and he realized he had a decision to make, a decision that would change the very course of history.
