First time at the Diagon Alley

I was meditating when I heard a knock on my bedroom's door. It is my Great Uncle. He seemed cautious. He sees me sitting in a position of meditation.

"What are you doing Neville?"

"Nothing, just thinking and reading a little bit. Are you leaving already?"

"Yes, but first I think we need to talk." He looks at me and continues. "Your grandmother told me that about a month ago, you started doing some spells. Is this true?"

I simply nod, but he looks suspicious, so I grab my father's wand from my new wallet and say "COLLOPORTUS". The door closes and locks.

First, his face show wary, then surprises. He looks at me thoroughly and smiles.

"Good! Very good! I couldn't believe when Augusta told me previously, but you have great control of your magic." He pauses and continues "Neville, you must tell me the true. What happened? For what I know the first and only time you could do some magic was in your birthday this year when I, accidentally, let you fall from the second floor and, even so, it was nothing special. Hence, tell me the true. What happened to you?"

It was kind of expected. I've been thinking about what to say to my family since I made the decision to try to change the way they see me. I can not say I have a meditation technique that helps me to produce / recharge my blue cells because it leads to another question. Where did I learn it?

Or worse, who did I learn from?

Thus, I only have one alternative, to explain, in a simple way, the process I use to do a spell without disclose anything related to my chakra points.

"I don't know Great Uncle Algie. It all started when we went to visit my parents at St. Mungus last month. I remember my mother wanted to give me a wrapper and I realized that a wrapper was my only connection to her. I did not want that. I want to be more for them. So I vowed I would do everything to be a son that they would be proud of."

I pause and notice my Great Uncle was moved.

"In that day, I decided to change. I started to read books about spells and then I tried to do some spells with my father's wand. I was not having much success. I read in a book I should clear my mind, imagine the spell, move the wand and say the magic world, but it was not working as it should. I was frustrated, but then an idea came into my mind as I was talking to grandma. I should clean my mind completely before trying to start the visualize step. Therefore I sat in my room and start to concentrate in my breathing. I was thinking in the way I was inhaling the air and exhaling it. Then I was really clear minded, so I started to visualize, then I moved the wand, then when I pronounced the magic words I did a complete spell."

When I finished,my Great Uncle was smiling. "Good, good, VERY GOOD! You really are your father's son, a true Longbottom! I always told your grandmother that it was impossible for you to have so little magic aptitude. Both your parent were aurors. I always thought it was a matter of time"

He stood up and continued, "Your talent seems very good, Neville! You are smarter than you looks, but you should not get lazy, boy. On the contrary, you have to keep striving for more. I'll ask your grandmother to keep me updated on your magical progress. I will not tell you much now, but if you keep developing yourself you have to know you may be able to get great rewards from our family when you turn 13. It's all up to you."

Before he left my bedroom, he turned around and warned me "Don't keep your grandmother away from you. Talk to her more. She is hard to handle but she is a very strong wizard, you know? You need her, as much as she needs you..."

"Thanks Great Uncle Algie! I'll try to get better." I scratch my head and smile a little embarassed. "It's not that I did not want to talk to her, but she did not asked me anything, I thought I was not wizard enough..."

"Hahahaha! You should both express better. You should not inherit it from your grandmother, one person like her is already hard enough to deal with."

I go down the stairs with my uncle and say goodbye to him and to my my Great Auntie Enid whom I thank, once again, for the gift.

Shortly after, My grandmother starts saying "I wanted to buy you some clothes for Christimas, but as I'll have to go to the Diagon Alley next month, I will let you choose what you want."

"Thanks, grandma. I just want some books, but why do you need to go to the Diagon Alley?"

"Your Great Uncle, of course, he asked me to go to Gringotts, even though, he knows I hate Gringotts. I don't trust those goblins! They are all very greed and know nothing but how to keep a treasure safe. Tsk, back to the matter in hand., your Christmas gift, What books do you want?

"I wanted to buy the first years course books to prepare for Hogwarts and I want to practice potions too..."

"Potions? I don't think it is a good idea. It is very easy to things go out of hand."She shaked her head.

"But I heard you saying my mother was especially gifted in potions." She looked at me an said a little annoyed.

"Okay, okay, but It is not something you should be doing without a teacher. I will supervise you on that. The books and the potions related material I would buy for you eventually, tsk, I will just buy you some clothes then."

My days are repetitive.

Every day I wake up, do my morning's hygienes, have breakfast with my grandmother, go to my room, do my breathing yoga, practice some spells, have lunck, read my books and when I don't understand something I ask grandma in our afternoon tea, then I do some more breathing yoga and start to "play" with Trevor.

By play, I mean test some spells. Of course, I don't do anything that tortures him. For now, I'm trying to understand the differences between a spell applied to something alive and something inanimate. I don't discovered much, but It is way more demanding, magically speaking. I spend three times more magic energy to levitate it than to do the same with a book, for example.

Time passes by and it's almost the end of January when my grandmother says we will go to the Diagon Alley in the next day. I'm super excited, I have some pocket money with me so I sleep planning about the things I should buy.

We have our regular breakfast, and we apparate at Charing Cross Road and we enter the famous Leaky Cauldron and it is as expected, a tiny, crowded, grubby-looking pub. Their tables are super shabby and the food I see in some of them appear to be inedible. Everything appear to be super grease and unclean.

The bald bartender tried to greet my grandmother, but she simply ignored him and went in the direction of the backdoor. Just as in the books, she tapped the brick wall with her wand, three up and two across, three times. Then a huge archway appeared, allowing me to see the famous cobbled street for the first time.

Hence I see many wizards walking in all directions. The first two stores I see is a cauldron and an apothecary shop, respectively.

"Where do you want to go first, Neville?" My grandmother asks while we walk through the streets.

"I want to look at some books first."

"Okay, Flourish & Blott's is just ahead."

When we get there, I stun. It was by far the largest bookstore I've ever seen in my two lives. Ever since I read my first Harry Potter's book, I discovered my love for books. So this bookstore is like heaven to me. So beautiful. Quickly an attendant came toward us. "First year at Hogwarts? We have all the course books with 25% discount.".

We bought all the first year course books outside "The Standard book of spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk" because I already have a copy of that, so I ask for the grade 2 and 3 of her collection and I choose some other books about Magical Theories besides "Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling".

Lastly I ended up buying Quidditch Through the Ages too. I've never read this book before as I used to tought it was silly to learn about a fictionary sport. I'm quite anxious to fly on a broomstick and I hear wizards talking about quidditch all the time. So I must learn more about it quickly.

After that, my grandmother took me to Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions and made me choose some robes and a winter cloak. While Madam Malkin was taking my measures, my grandmother went to Gringotts. I wanted to go there too, but she refused. She said the last time I puked in the cart. I was planning to walk around the Knockturn Alley a little, but before Madam Makin finished, my grandmother was back already.

I took some ice cream in Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, we bought some stuff for potions and then depart.

When we got home, my grandma says "Go unpack your stuff, but don't touch the cauldron before I teach you the basics first. This is not child's play. We will start to practice tuesday morning."