The place I lived the most was in my “Happy House” (check out the book) in between Knockturn and Diagon Alley. Over the years it has defiantly seen some changes, for the good and for the bad. I moved there when I was 2/3 years old and didn’t see much of the place. There were only one or two shops, the bank and the pub.

Later on, it became THE place to be. Shops would be filled, but I only went to certain shops on certain occasions. So, people didn’t see much of me. You could get pretty much anything you wanted in Diagon Alley, wands, books, brooms, potion ingredients, sneakoscopes, telescopes, ice-cream. Then Sirius broke out so all the warning signs went up… then more people broke out of Azkaban. It was like walking into a public notice board of warnings.

Suddenly shops started closing down, people were being captured and it started with Ollivander’s Wands and Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour. I was allowed to carry on living in our house, I was deemed “safe”. Fred and George continued to manage their business very well in Diagon Alley even until just before the Battle. It stayed like that for some time almost making the business the beacon of hope in the darkness as more and more shops got boarded up.

For those of us that knew it before it was never going to be quite the same after the battle. I am happy to report however that it isn’t far of what it used to be. For me it is 1990s Diagon Alley because that is the year I went to get my wand.