About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Diagon Alley

Encyclopedia : D : DI : DIA : Diagon Alley

In J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels and their filmed adaptations, Diagon Alley is a road in London, comparable to a magical high street. It is accessible to witches and wizards but hidden from Muggles. However, Muggles are allowed access to it if they wish to accompany their magical children. It appears to be an economic hub of Britain's sparse Wizarding world. It is home to Ollivander's (makers of magic wands since 382 BC and likely the country's primary supplier), as well as the goblin-run Gringotts Bank and Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions. Other establishments include the Flourish & Blotts bookstore, Eeylops' Owl Emporium, Quality Quidditch Supplies and The Leaky Cauldron Inn. For those shopping for Hogwarts equipment, Diagon Alley serves all needs.

There are other shopping areas besides Diagon Alley: the notorious Knockturn Alley is home to mainly stores of ill repute among respectable wizards - stores such as Borgin and Burkes, which sells Dark objects and cursed items; as well as the town of Hogsmeade.

One entrance to Diagon Alley can be reached on foot by passing through the famous inn, The Leaky Cauldron. The inn, invisible to Muggles, lies somewhere along the London thoroughfare Charing Cross Road (Charing Cross Road is famous as a centre for booksellers, both new and second-hand, which might go some way towards explaining why noted bibliophile JK Rowling chose it as the enterance to her world). To reach Diagon Alley, one must walk up to a wall behind the inn, and tap the bricks with a wand in a certain order. Given the busy nature of the area, travelling to and from Diagon Alley is likely typically done by more magical means such as Apparition or by using the Floo Network. In the first film, Diagon Alley appears to be a short walk away from Leadenhall Market in the City of London.

The name is a pun on "diagonally"; evidence for that can be found in the movie version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The DVD of that movie includes a video "guided tour" of Diagon Alley, apparently shot on the original film sets.

Contents

Cauldron Shop, Unnamed

Daily Prophet

Eeylops Owl Emporium

Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour

Harry spent some pleasant hours here working on summer holiday assignments before his third year at Hogwarts. Mr Fortescue even helped him with one of his essays about historic witch burnings and supplied him with free sundaes every half hour.PA Ch.4. The parlour has been closed ever since Mr Fortescue went missing.

Flourish & Blotts


Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop

Gringotts Wizarding Bank

Gringotts is the only known bank of the wizarding world. It is operated primarily by goblins. Wizards and witches keep their money and other valuables in vaults that are protected by very complex and strong security measures. It is rumoured that dragons guard the especially high security vaults.

There are a number of methods to opening the vaults. Most vaults, such as Harry's, use small golden keys. Higher security vaults may have various enchantments upon the doors. For example, the door to Vault 713 needs to be stroked by a certified Gringotts goblin, which causes it to melt away. If anyone but a Gringotts goblin touches the door, the person will be sucked into the vault, which is checked for trapped thieves about once every 10 years.

While Gringotts is largely staffed by goblins, it is known that the bank does employ humans. Bill Weasley worked as a curse-breaker for Gringotts in Egypt, retrieving artifacts from ancient Egyptian tombs and pyramids.PA Ch.5 Fleur Delacour took a part time job with Gringotts after participating in the Triwizard Tournament, supposedly to improve her English.

The Gringotts Bank also offers Muggle-Wizarding currency exchange. CS Ch.4

When Harry first visited Gringotts, he was told by Hagrid that one would have to be mad to try to rob Gringotts. PS Ch.5 Goblins are extremely greedy and would protect their money and valuables at any cost, which makes them ideal guardians for the valuables of the Wizarding world.

Gringotts Vault 713 held a small grubby bag, inside of which was the Philosopher's Stone. Dumbledore sent Hagrid to retrieve it while he escorted Harry. PS Ch.5 Later that very same day Quirrell broke into the vault under orders of Voldemort; although he was unsuccessful in obtaining the Philosopher's Stone, the break-in shocked the wizarding world because the culprit was not caught. The robbery was reported in the Daily Prophet, because it was practically unheard of for Gringotts to be robbed.

According to the movie adaptations of the series, Harry's vault is number 687. Sirius Black's vault number is 711. Nicholas Flamel's Philosopher's Stone was located in vault number 713. The number of the Weasley family's vault is unknown.

See also

The Leaky Cauldron

Founder: Daisy Dodderidge (1467-1555), first landlady

Current Landlord: Tom the bartender and innkeeper

Established: The pub was built by Daisy Dodderidge around 1500 "to serve as a gateway between the non-wizarding world and Diagon Alley".

Sells: Food, drinks, rents rooms

Description: The Leaky Cauldron is an inn for wizards. As shown in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the sign over the door appears to be a weather-beaten blank sign. Upon the approach of one or more magical persons, the pub's name becomes visible. There are a number of rooms available; Harry has stayed in Room 11, which has a talking mirror and windows that allow him to look out onto Charing Cross Road. The inn also has a bar, several private parlor rooms and a large dining room for guests to dine. People often stay at The Leaky Cauldron when they come up to London on shopping trips; there is no mention of other wizarding hotels or inns.

Location: The rear of The Leaky Cauldron opens onto a "chilly little courtyard" just off of Diagon Alley, but the pub faces onto Charing Cross Road. As such, it is a means of passing from between Diagon Alley and Muggle London.

Known Customers: Harry Potter, Hagrid, the Weasley family, Hermione Granger, former Hogwarts professor Quirrell, Doris Crockford, Dedalus Diggle, and other members of the wizarding community

Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions

Harry Potter has two fairly significant meetings with Draco Malfoy in Madam Malkin's shop. This is where Harry meets Draco for the very first time in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Harry is rather bewildered by the questions Draco asks, as Harry is still unfamiliar with so many aspects of the wizarding world. A second meeting occurs just before the beginning of Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts. In contrast to their first meeting, now both boys are fully aware of each other's role in the conflict that rages within the wizarding world.

Magical Menagerie

Ollivander's

Mr Ollivander, the pale-eyed, white-haired shopkeeper, makes and sells magic wands to witches and wizards as they enter school or break their old wands. To determine the best wand for a witch or wizard, Mr Ollivander measures various body parts and then checks the reactions of various wands to the buyer, a process he refers to as "the wand [choosing] the wizard".

Harry Potter tried a great many wands before he found one suited to his magical personality. Harry Potter's phoenix-feather holly wand, Hermione Granger's dragon-heartstring vine wood wand, and Ron Weasley's unicorn-hair willow wand unite all three Ollivander wand cores.[link]

Wands known to have been purchased here include:

Harry Potter: holly, 11", supple, single phoenix tail feather (from Fawkes)
Ron Weasley: First wand: (Used by Ron from August '91 to 1st September '92, originally a hand-me-down from Charlie Weasley) Ash, unicorn tail hair
:Second Wand: (31st August '93) Willow, 14", unicorn tail hair
Hermione Granger: Vine, dragon heartstring
James Potter: Mahoghany, 11", pliable, excellent for transfiguration
Lily Evans: Willow, 10 1/4", swishy, nice wand for charm work
Rubeus Hagrid: Oak, 16", rather bendy
Tom Riddle: Yew, 13 1/2", single phoenix tail feather (from Fawkes)
Cedric Diggory: 12 1/4", single unicorn hair from the tail of a particularly fine male unicorn
Neville Longbottom: First Wand: (Used by Neville from September '91 to June '96 - it was his father's old wand)
:Second Wand: (From July '96) Cherry, unicorn hair
(Check out [The Lexicon] for more info on what the wand core means.)

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Although Harry Potter has a symbolically heroic[link] holly wand and Lord Voldemort has a symbolically deadly yew wand, their wands have the same core: a feather each from Albus Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes. The magical effects of the twin cores later allowed Harry Potter to successfully ward off Voldemort in a graveyard.

The shop closed when Ollivander went missing on 31 July, 1996 in mysterious circumstances, strongly suspected to be linked with rising Death Eater activity. One of Ollivander's last customers was Neville Longbottom.

See also

External link

References

Quality Quidditch Supplies

Slug & Jiggers Apothecary

Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes

Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes is a fictional joke shop in the Harry Potter books. It is owned by Fred and George Weasley, who founded it in 1996 (between Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince). It is located in 93 Diagon Alley, London. The only known worker (Aside from Fred and George) is a blonde witch called Verity. This is a little joke, seeing as the name 'Verity' means 'truth'.

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes was conceptualized by Fred and George Weasley, who started using the name in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for mail orders. To run their own joke shop had always been their life's ambition, and this ambition was finally realized when Harry Potter, a trusted friend of theirs, gave them his Triwizard Tournament winnings of a thousand Galleons.

After departing Hogwarts in Phoenix, the two Weasleys set up their shop in Diagon Alley which quickly became very successful. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Argus Filch has a blanket ban on any joke products purchased from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. However, like most warnings and prohibitions posted by Filch, these are largely ignored by students. In any case, Fred and George deliver products to the castle as part of their Owl Order Service - and all WWW products are disguised as cough syrups or perfumes.

Items Developed or Sold

Skiving Snackbox

A Skiving Snackbox is a range of sweets to make the user ill. The user develops strange symptoms depending on the type of snack eaten. The purpose of these was to make a student appear unable to stay in class. Most came in two colour-coded parts: one that would cause the malady, and one that would heal the pupil once they had left class.

They include: Fainting Fancies, Fever Fudge, Nosebleed Nougat, Puking Pastilles

Weasleys' Wildfire Whizbangs

Unstoppable fireworks. Multiply at any attempt to vanish them. They include shocking-pink Catherine wheels, sparkling, fire-breathing dragons, sparklers that spell out profanity, rockets with long tails of silver stars, and firecrackers. When any two types collide, they make new kinds. Include Basic Blaze Box and Deflagration Deluxe.
Background History: In Fred and Georges final year, they used these fireworks as a protest against the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge.

Other Items Developed or Sold

Note: this is not a complete list.

Minor Shops

WhizzHard Books

Known for publishing Quidditch Through the Ages

Terrortours

Twilfitt and Tatting's

Obscurus Books

Known for commissioning and publishing Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

Junk shop

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: