DIAGON ALLEY
ter, o’ course, but he’d never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius
Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dum-
bledore with owls every morning, askin’ fer advice.”
“But what does a Ministry of Magic do?”
“Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there’s
still witches an’ wizards up an’ down the country.”
“Why?”
“Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone’d be wantin’ magic solutions to
their problems. Nah, we’re best left alone.”
At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbor wall.
Hagrid folded up his newspaper, and they clambered up the stone
steps onto the street.
Passersby stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little
town to the station. Harry couldn’t blame them. Not only was Ha-
grid twice as tall as anyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordi-
nary things like parking meters and saying loudly, “See that, Harry?
Things these Muggles dream up, eh?”
“Hagrid,” said Harry, panting a bit as he ran to keep up, “did
you say there are dragons at Gringotts?”
“Well, so they say,” said Hagrid. “Crikey, I’d like a dragon.”
“You’d like one?”
“Wanted one ever since I was a kid — here we go.”
They had reached the station. There was a train to London
in five minutes’ time. Hagrid, who didn’t understand “Muggle
money,” as he called it, gave the bills to Harry so he could buy their
tickets.
People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two
seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.
“Still got yer letter, Harry?” he asked as he counted stitches.
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