Diagon Alley

If one wanted to make money in the wizarding world, there were a few ways, just as there were in any other. The two main ways, naturally, were to either get a job or turn to crime, which was a sort of a freelance job in its nature as well, unless you joined an organization, in which case it could quickly turn into a full-time job with high risk and high reward if done right or becoming the fall guy if done wrong. As a Wizard, he could do much the same, except the definition of work itself was quite different. The problem was, he wasn't exactly old enough nor with the proper paperwork to find magical employment.

Gaude decided that since the orphanage was running on donations, why couldn't an orphan struggling with poverty do the same? As a result, those wearing finer clothing on the Newham Way found themselves unable to pay for some fancy cocktails or a fine meal after indulging in it. It was as if the money had grown wings and flown away.

Not that anybody would suggest such an event. They��d be committed to a mental health institute for even uttering such words. No, it was better to bear the little bit of embarrassment and wait for a family member to come and rescue them from the predicament after a phone call, paid for with the spare change that had shown a lot more loyalty towards their owner than their paper brethren.

Meanwhile, Gaude's heart beat a little faster each time he managed to pull off another successful wallet heist. He could barely suppress the grin forming on his face each time he saw the small stockpile of bills growing. It would definitely cause either suspicion or worry in the adults.

As to how he did it – he snuck the wallet out of an unassuming pocket with telekinesis while sending out slight compulsions to not mind any strange sensations and removed the cash. He had no use for the coins, they were just unnecessary weight with little value. Then he just returned the wallets to the pockets of the people that looked like they could survive a little donation for the greater good.

Some of the people that fell victim to Gaude's pickpocketing spree were in fact poor youngsters dressed up to look fancy, but he returned their wallets with an extra hundred pounds in it. Those guys were obviously out to impress a girl and going with just ten to twenty pounds they had likely scraped together after a few weeks or even a month of odd jobs wouldn't do.

Those people were few and far in between, so him 'giving his blessing' to the hopeful youths so that they could possibly land a girl they thought to be out of their league wouldn't impact his own income too much. At some point, he had started adding a note with the redistributed funds: 'Have faith, brother. Your endeavor has been blessed by Your Friendly Neighborhood Tax Fairy.'

As the wad grew quite thick, about two thousand pounds in value to be more precise, he decided that it was finally time to get himself started in the magical world. Luckily, a perfect chance soon presented itself – a new caretaker had joined the orphanage, but just like their previous pediatrist, this one had the habit of taking blood and tissue samples from Gaude as well.

On a warm August afternoon, the new caretaker even went as far as taking a bone marrow sample. Gaude had nearly blacked out with the pain, but he gritted his freshly-grown teeth as hard as he could and managed to pull through. That was what Gaude had been waiting for, his perfect excuse.

He even struggled during the last sampling process to cause as much damage as he could. He hadn't foreseen that the lady would hold him down with a lot of force after that and threaten to kill everyone in the orphanage if he talked about what happened, but that made it all the better. He'd even have bruises as evidence.

Once the new caretaker had left for wherever she would go after a though day of rearing children and taking samples, Gaude went to the young caretaker that was currently nodding off in the rocking chair after a tough day in the city and said: "Big sis Irma, auntie Ella took away some of my blood again, won't I dry up and become all wrinkly like Grandma Adelaide if she keeps doing that?"

Gaude had started a heavy regime of compulsions on Irma, to make the entire environment seem just a bit off to her, dulling her senses and even going as far as to almost completely erase her sense of smell and taste, to make those sensations feel like faint memories.

Either due to some of his compulsions or Irma's own nature, she went pale at Gaude's statement and exclaimed: "Oh my lord, have they no decency?"

It was still fresh in Irma's memory how the men in suits and that military type had showed up all loud and demanding that Ronald be handed over to them as they were 'uniquely equipped to deal with cases like him'. Luckily, Adelaide, the woman that Irma considered her mother even if there was no blood relation had managed to use her connections to drive the army type away.

Who could've guessed that they'd just sneak one of their people into the orphanage as an employee and continue whatever their agenda was by taking samples from a child that wasn't even a year old, even if he did look and talk as if he was three?

"What's decency? Is that the name of the candies auntie Ella sometimes gives me? They make me really sleepy!", Gaude said.

Naturally, Gaude had managed to resist sugar-coated sleeping pills just fine, since Wizardkind's tolerance to all sorts of substances was much higher than a Muggle's and the 'caretaker' had given him a dose meant for a Muggle child, afraid to overdose him and cause him to not wake up soon enough or at all.

"She did what?!", Irma shouted loudly, causing a few infants to wake up and start crying.

###

Irma's head felt a bit foggy, as if she was forgetting something important, but didn't feel like trying too hard to recall it. The entire situation with Ronald being drugged and taken blood samples from sounded just too unrealistic, but she still decided to take little Ronald (Gaude's birth name in that world) to a proper doctor, to find out just what had been done to him. For some reason, Irma had the thought that the most trustworthy doctors could be found if she passed through the Leaky Cauldron, a dusty-looking inn.

Irma had passed by the place a few times when she was out in the city, but never felt any desire to enter it, the place simply didn't look all that appealing. Yet, now she felt very differently about the place. It was as if it was the secret entrance to a place with the only trustworthy doctors and other professionals that could help find out just what exactly was done to little Ronald and help him get over the trauma.

There was also the matter of Ronald's hair falling out in clumps, as if he had suddenly gone all the way past middle-aged. Irma wasn't sure if it was a manifestation of the child's special condition or something that the military's constant poking and prodding had done to him.

After they had finally entered the place, Irma spoke up: "Would anyone here be as kind as to open up the Diagon Alley for me? I seem to have left my wand at home."

Now, Irma had no idea what a wand was or what it looked like, but the words just came out of her mouth, as if by themselves. Besides, she felt that these were the exact words she needed to say to get little Ronald the help he undoubtedly needed to deal with the trauma and the apparent physical side effects of whatever had been done to him.

Suddenly, Irma felt something hard in her hand. Looking down, she saw that it was the menu for the Leaky Cauldron, and everything in it had the word Leaky or Cauldron in it. She found that a bit strange, but just a moment later she forgot all about it as a woman with hair so vibrantly red that it had to be against some kind of regulations said: "I don't mind helping a fellow witch out. Follow me."

Irma felt like she should be offended by being called a witch, yet the sincerity the other said it with made her doubt herself. Finally, she just followed the self-proclaimed witch out through the back, to a very obvious brick wall. Irma thought that they were waiting for someone, yet the witch took out a long, thin stick, quite similar to a short pointer and tapped its end against a brick near a dust bin.

After she had done that, the bricks in the wall started moving and at first a small hole appeared, but then it grew bigger and bigger until a large archway was formed, revealing an entire street behind it. Suddenly, Irma felt that this was exactly what was supposed to happen, and for some reason, she felt happy that the street had been revealed.

Irma then secretly pinched herself, but only felt as if she had lightly touched the spot with a fingertip. "Definitely a dream. I guess I'll just enjoy it then until one of the kids wakes me up.", Irma muttered to herself.

"Big sis Irma, let's go! I bet there's all sorts of fun things in there!", little Ronald exclaimed excitedly.

Irma wasn't about to deny the child, since she had business to take care there anyway. Just what that business was, she couldn't remember, but she was sure that she'd recall it once she saw the right building. There was also the matter that little Gaude had been greatly traumatized by unsanctioned medical procedures and a change of scenery would only do him good.

Irma thanked the kind woman for her help and they were on their way. Suddenly, little Gaude seemed a lot more energetic, he was even skipping ahead along the cobbled street, his eyes gleaming and darting from storefront to storefront, as if he'd just received a very early Christmas present.

Irma was happy that her baby brother had already recovered so much from the trauma, even if they were currently in one of her strangest dreams so far.

On the street, there were various stores with glimmering windows, displaying colorful wares stacked on top of each other, or otherwise on display. There was a shop selling cauldrons, a shop selling robes, a shop selling globes that looked a lot like the moon, a few of them seemed reddish in color…

Irma wasn't sure at first who would buy any of these things in large quantities, yet looking at the people on the street, she noticed that they a few of them were exiting the shop with a globe in hand and some in the distance even more eccentric items. The people themselves were mostly all wearing robes and pointy hats. More often than not, they were also wearing boots or shoes with pointy noses.

Some of the people were even waving their short pointers around and speaking gibberish, and strange things happened where they pointed. Then again, this was a dream, and in dreams, more often than not, normal was abnormal and vice versa.

Soon, they had made their way into a crossing, where a snowy-white multi-story building was. The building had 'Gringotts Bank' written on it in large golden letters.