"They have to be joking." Ness said, rereading the fancy letter for the 50th time, Paula, his friend looked up from flower picking and laughed, "I don't see what's so hard to believe."
"Well considering the fact that Ness isn't cracking a joke." Jeff said, looking up from his latest invention, "I'd say it's hard to believe."
"It is! The letter says that I'm a wizard!" Ness handed the letter to Paula and Jeff who briefly studied it, "That's impossible." Jeff said, "PSI powers aren't magic, their—,"
"If you compare PSI to science again." Paula warned, "I'm hitting you over the head with my frying pan."
Jeff gulped and adjusted his glasses, "Er. Right, PSI and magic are two different things."
Ness fiercely nodded in agreement, "Yea! And the headmaster, Dumbledore? He's putting me in the second year of school and in something called Gryffindor!"
Paula frowned and sat down, "Maybe he has great faith in your skills?"
"That's probably it," Jeff said, "After all, he says that he's heard about how we saved the world and your PSI skills."
"Then why didn't you guys get a letter?!" Ness asked.
Paula shrugged while Jeff sighed, "Well first off, I can't use PSI like you guys can, Paula would have ignored it and Poo is too busy training to care."
Ness frowned but nodded in agreement looking toward where Poo was practicing his martial arts. A determined look on his face as he worked. With a sigh Ness lied down in the cool summer grass and looked up at the sun.
"Whatever." Ness said, "This is probably just a joke the police force sent me."
"Why would this be a joke?" Jeff questioned, picking up the school list and studying it, "The Standard Book of Spells Year 2? Magical Drafts and Potions, A History of Magic? This sounds too official to be a joke!"
"Then it's probably a very good joke." Ness countered, "Which isn't going to ruin the rest of my summer."
Jeff opened his mouth to argue when Paula stopped him with a shake of her head, "He's not going to change his mind Jeff so you might as well give it up."
Ness nodded in agreement and adjusted his baseball cap, "Now how about we focus on an important topic,"
"Steak?" Jeff sarcastically asked. Ness laughed and shook his head no, "No, not really. Baseball!" He whipped out his bat and tossed Paula a ball, "Come on! I bet I can beat your high score of 12 home runs Jeff!"
Jeff groaned and followed after him grumbling, "Dad was right, taking short-cuts to win baseball is a bad idea." Paula giggled and looked at Poo, "You wanna play?"
Poo ignored her and continued his training.
XxXxXx
"I'm dreaming. Right?" Ness asked, as his mother hummed a cheerfully little town as they drove toward London, Tracy kicked the air and smiled at him, "This is awesome! My big brother's a PSI master and a wizard!"
Ness ignored her and repeated his question only to get a cheerful reply of, "Nope! You're perfectly awake sweetheart!"
Ness blinked in disbelief and looked out the window, it had been raining when they left Onett but now that they were entering London the rain had stopped and just left the dark clouds behind in a hazy, depressing fog.
He was somewhat grateful when they finally pulled into a parking lot and got out, they had been driving for more than five hours at least! "Alright, according to the letter, Diagon Alley is hidden in an alleyway."
"Hidden in an alleyway?" Ness repeated.
His mother nodded and looked around, "That's what it says dear."
Tracy stood on her tippy toes and looked around as people bustled past them. Clearly knowing where they were going.
"Well, while you look around. I'm going to get my suitcase." Ness said. His mother nodded and tried to ask people for help while Ness unlocked the trunk and pulled out his brand new suitcase.
It felt odd, to have an actually carry on inside of just using his pockets to carry stuff. He returned to his Mother's side and looked around, "Soooo any luck?" Ness asked.
"No, and everyone's looking at me like a crazy person!" his Mother sighed and glanced down at the letter in her hand, "Maybe this was just a joke."
"What! It can't be!" Tracy complained, "We probably just aren't looking in the right place!"
"Or, the magical warlocks hid it in outer space." Ness joked, Tracy was about to nod in agreement when she realized Ness was teasing her. "Very funny." Tracy grumbled.
"Ness, can you sense anything?" Ness focused for a bit and then shook his head, "Nope, sensing things is more of Paula's forty."
"Oh deeaaar," his mother groaned.
Ness was about to suggest checking the sights out before they called it quits when someone bumped into him, "Hey!" Ness spun around and blinked in surprise at the girl who had stumbled into him.
"Sorry!" the girl apologized once she regained her bearings, her voice was thick with a cocky accent and her hair was a bright red.
"That's okay. You just startled me." Ness said, the girl nodded and wrung her hands, she seemed… odd, Ness deicide from her tattered black robe to her scruffy boots, no one in Onett dressed like that. Then again, Ness shouldn't be too hard to judge since everyone he knew was weird.
Which is why he loved home. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know where Diagon Alley is, would ya?" Ness asked.
The girl surprisingly smiled and nodded her head yes, "Of course! I was heading there with my family to pick up school supplies, follow me!"
Ness nodded and waved his mother and Tracy over before he followed the red head toward a wall, she tapped a brick and waited as the wall broke apart, forming a door way into a bustling alley full of similarly dressed people as the girl.
"Ginny!" Ness jumped as a tall skinny boy, somehow even skinner than Ness was sprinted toward them, "There you are! Mom was having a panic attack when she realized you weren't with us!" Ginny flushed slightly and gestured toward Ness, "Sorry! But I was helping someone."
"Someone named Ness." Ness added, earning a stern glare from his Mother and a muffled giggle from Tracy, the boy looked at him and jumped, probably noticing Ness's black eyes.
"Yea, I'm the black horse of the family." Ness joked, earning another stern glare from his Mother, "I see then…" the boy said, he turned to Ginny and said, "Come on, I wanna try and find Harry before it gets dark."
"Oh, right." Ginny turned to Ness and smiled saying, "It was nice meeting you Ness." Then she left with her brother,
"Wow!" Tracy said spinning around in a circle to take in the odd stores and wizard like people, "This place is huge!"
"Well, come on." His mother said, "We don't have all day. And I still want to find an inn…" Inn, right. Ness was going to stay at the inn (If they had one) until it was time for him to head to school, which was somewhere in London. Since it didn't make any sense to risk being late for the train, his Mother and Father had decided that it would be best for Ness to stay a couple days to soak up the sights and get used to the place.
"How come Ness gets to stay by himself and I don't?" Tracy asked, "After all, I had a part time job at Escargo Express!"
"Yes, but Ness is old enough to stay by himself." His Mother argued, walking down the brisk street while keeping an eye out for a bank called Gringots.
"I wonder what currency wizards use." Tracy mused, Ness shrugged and said, "Magic probably."
Tracy frowned and asked, "How could wizards turn magic into money?"
"Well, they can turn random objects into gold according to those old stories. So maybe that's how."
"That seems a bit cheap."
"Hey, they could be cheap."
Tracy thought about this and looked around at the Witches and Wizards trying to pawn their goods, "Ah-ha! Here we are!"
Ness looked up in whistled in amazement at the giant stone building. They walked inside and looked around,
"Are those… Goblins?" Tracy asked, pointing to a squat green creature that was using some golden scale to weigh something.
"Looks like it." Ness said, Tracy whimpered slightly and hid behind Ness as they walked up to the counter, "Um, excuse me we need enough money to afford the items on the list." His mother offered the supply list which had a list of prices. The Goblin looked up and glared at her muttering, "Muggles." Before it spoke up, "Righ' then, do you have enough pound notes on ya?"
Tracy frowned and looked at their Mother trying to figure out what the ugly little creature meant, "We don't have pound notes, but we do have dollar bills." She handed him five tens and wrung her hands, trying for a polite smile. "Err, will this be enough to—,"
The goblin grabbed the dollar bills, stepped down from its chair and disappeared down a mine cart system, when it returned it dropped a small sack loaded with odd colored nuts, there were 15 bronze, 10 sliver and 5 gold.
"Thank you." His Mother said, the goblin grunted and resuming weighing.
"Lovely custom service." Ness grumbled once they were back outside,
"I think he needs a hug." Tracy mused.
His mother sighed and checked her list, "Alright, first things first, you need a wand, robe and a cauldron before we hit the book store."
"And an inn." Ness reminded her.
"And ice cream," Tracy added earning blank stares from her mother and brother. She shrugged and folded her hands behind her back, "What? I saw an ice cream parlor when we entered."
Ness sighed and looked around, "There seems to be a robe store over there." His Mother nodded in agreement and they began their shopping trip, the easy part was surprisingly getting the robe, despite the fact that Ness insisted that it was a Bathrobe for night owls while Tracy argued that it was cloak.
After that, they bought the cauldron on the list, the books and finally headed to a wand store by the name of Ollivanders. Ness pushed open the door and sneezed, disturbing the thin layer of dust that seemed to engulf the store.
His Mother tsked in disgust as she and Tracy shuffled inside, careful not to touch anything in the tiny store, "Whoever owns this place needs to clean better."
"That would be me." They jumped as a tiny man shuffled around a display of pointed wands and gave them a small smile, "Excuse the mess miss, I get wrapped up in my work." His mother nodded and opened her mouth when the small man beat her to the punch, giving Ness a swift look, "Ah, a new wizard looking for a wand this way please…"
Ness nodded and followed him deeper inside the shop, frowning at all the sticks called 'wands' pointing out of small boxes. "Now let see…" the man murmured picking up a box and studying it, "Er. Excuse me Mr…"
"Ollivander." The man supplied he turned to Ness and handed him a short wand, "Here, try this, 10/2 birth wood with a coral core."
Ness gently picked it up and studied it, "Am I… supposed to wave it around?" Ness asked. Ollivander nodded and waited. Ness waved it around and winced as Ollivander quickly snatched it out his hand, "No, no, too robust." Ollivander he placed it back and picked up a longer wand, "Here, try this Dogwood 13/5 with a Unicorn tail hair."
Ness accepted it and waved it around, only for it to quickly be taken away again, "A tricky one aren't ya." Ollivander mused, a teasing smile on his face, he handed Ness a medium size wand, Ash 14/5 with a Dragon heartstring. Ness waved it around and frowned as it was once again taken away from him.
"Mr. Ollivander, I don't think I'm cut out to wield a wand." Ness said as Ollivander placed an oak wand, 17/5 with a Kelpie Mane. Ollivander frowned and adjusted his owl eye glasses, "Oh-ho? Why not boy?"
"Despite what everyone says, I don't use magic, I use PSI."
"PSI?"
"Basically, a psychic, I use my hand to perform any 'spells' and I wield an oak baseball bat."
"I see… by the way, what is your name?"
"Ness. Ness EarthBound." Ness answered, "The B in bound is capitalized by the way." Ollivander's glasses practically slipped of his face as a light appeared in his old eyes, "Ah-ha! Dumbledore mentioned that you would be arriving."
"Who? And he did?" Ness questioned, Ollivander nodded and disappeared into the back, returning with a simple Oak wand that was at least 10 exact inches, "Try this." Ollivander said, before he quickly added, "While attempting to perform an attack."
Ness hesitated since he didn't want to hurt the old man, or cause him to cry uncontrollable so he decided on Hypnosis a. He pointed the wand at Ollivander and said, "Hypnosis!" picturing the lowercase a in his mind. He blinked in surprise as the wand fired a small white ball which nearly knocked Ollivander off his feet.
"Is everything alright?!" Tracy asked, peering around the corner in surprise.
Ness looked up then back at Ollivander who was fast asleep, "Nah, nothing's wrong, I just discovered that wands + PSI = bomb." Ness quipped. He checked the price on the wand and hopefully left enough to pay for it before they went to the ice cream parlor.
"Hey look! It's that kid from before!" Tracy said, pointing toward Ginny's brother who was laughing with a couple friends, "I wonder if they're going to that Hogwart place." Ness mused.
"There's only one way to find out," his mother said.
"Well, why you do that, I'm getting ice cream!" Ness laughed as Tracy dragged their mother inside the quant parlor, "Joke or not, getting to know some new people would be fun." Ness decided. He walked over to their table and waited for a bit.
When they didn't notice them Ness spoke up, "Hi!" Ginny's brother looked up and practically toppled off his chair while a boy with messy black hair, green eyes and a thunderbolt scar and his friend, a girl with bushy brown hair looked up and studied him in surprise.
"Hello." The boy with black hair finally said, "Who are you?" Ness extended his hand and introduced himself, "I'm Ness EarthBound, from Onett, America."
"Onett?" the bushy hair girl questioned, "Where's that?" Ness thought for a bit before he shrugged his shoulders, "In America, I've never really payed that much attention to geographic locations in school before."
"Hold on, Ness EarthBound?" Ginny's brother repeated, "I think I heard that name before." Ness felt his heart flutter slightly wondering how this England boy would have heard about him before, did he save the world? Sure, with the help of some awesome friends but it was old news and had happened over the school year.
"Really? Where?" Ness asked, prodding the boy for more clues, he thought for a bit before he shook his head.
"Sorry, my memories a bit fuzzy about where I heard about you. I'm Ron Weasley by the way."
The boy with dark hair extended his hand saying "Harry Potter." Then he gestured to the girl who waved hello, "And this is our friend, Hermione Granger."
"Nice to meet you guys." Ness said, adjusted his hat and looked around, "Hey, you guys wouldn't know an inn close by here, right?" Harry nodded and pointed down the road, "Yea, it's called the Leaky Cauldron, I'm staying there."
"If you want, we could show you the way." Harry offered.
"That would be great, just let me tell my Mom and I'll be good." Ness said. He walked inside the ice cream parlor and whistled at the huge selection of flavors on the wall, Tracy was licking a plain vanilla cone. His mother was trying a multicolored ice cream, "Found an inn." Ness said.
"Really? Where is it?"
"Don't know, I found a couple people who knew where it was, one of them was staying there."
"So you made friends?"
"Not really, just acquaintances."
His Mother sighed but managed a smile, "Well, acquaintances is better than nothing have fun."
Tracy smiled and hugged her brother good bye, "Try not to blow anyone up when your practicing magic." Tracy teased.
Ness scowled remembering his first time using PSI, he had accidently directed the attack toward himself and looked like a charcoal idiot for the rest of the day.
"Alright, I'm ready." Ness said, dragging his suitcase behind him with a small smile, winching at how heavy his once light suitcase had become from all the school supplies.
"Need help with that?" Ron asked, Ness shook his head no and followed Harry, as they walked down the crowded streets they talked about magical things and sports, or rather, everyone but Ness did since it still seemed like a joke that he was actually a wizard.
"Hey Ness, what do you think?" Ness looked up and frowned, trying to figure out what Harry had asked him, "Think about what?" Ness asked.
"Well," Harry hesitated before he continued, "Before I arrived here at Diagon Alley I saw a black dog, which is supposedly an omen of death." Ness raised an eyebrow and thought for a bit, before he bumped into a time traveling alien he hadn't really thought much about omens and predicting the future.
But after seeing everything the alien had warned him about come true, Ness had become a bit warier of predictions and omens and took their warnings a bit more seriously.
"Where were you when you saw the dog?" Ness asked.
"I was at home. I saw it during the middle of the night but when I went to get my glasses to be sure it was gone." Harry explained, Ness frowned and said, "It probably was an omen, just try not to think about it and focus on current events. If it was a death omen, then thinking about it and worrying about isn't going to help you when it comes. It's better to be caught off guard with a slight idea with how dangerous the situation could be than ignoring it completely."
"You believe in omens?" Hermione questioned, disbelief evident in her voice.
Ness shrugged and replied, "Yes and no, I'll take whatever warning with some seriousness but if it was just a random fluke which doesn't add onto anything later, then I'll ignore it."
"See! Harry has the right mind to be worried about it!" Ron said, sounding a bit too happy about this, Harry mutely nodded and looked a pale shade of green as they stepped inside the Leaky Cauldron, Ness looked around and walked up to the desk. Or the bar counter since the first floor looked like one of those western bars with a bunch of happy go lucky patrons.
"Hello, I'd like a room for the night." Ness said to the bartender.
The bartender looked up and glanced at Ness's suitcase, "Ah, a student for Hogwarts?"
"Err.. Yea."
"I see, so you'll just be staying for the night." The bartender reached under the counter and placed a rusted key in front of Ness. "That'll be 5 galleons. If you need anything just ask for Tom; that's me."
Ness nodded and hopefully placed 5 galleons onto the counter before he headed upstairs to room 203.
He was surprised to see that the room was small, it had a bed shoved to one side of the room with a wobbly bedside table beside it, and a small door was off to the side, probably leading to the bathroom.
"Wow, 5-star accommodation here." Ness grumbled, although he wasn't really sure what to except from an old looking bar. He headed back downstairs in hopes of finding a map to Kings Cross. Instead he found Harry and his friends talking to a man with balding red hair who was reading a newspaper.
Ness approached them but was quickly distracted by a man with long black hair actively scowling as his eyes darted around the picture. Ness froze and tried to figure out how the picture was moving when Giygais was gone when Hermione noticed him, "You found your room okay?" she asked.
"Yea." Ness said, "but what's up with the moving picture?" Hermione glanced at the newspaper then back at Ness, "It's nothing, Wizards use magic cameras which allows the people inside the photo to move around."
"So it's supposed to do that?" Ness questioned, Hermione nodded and glanced at her friends who were looking to leave. Hermione nodded again and turned to leave.
"Weird." Ness muttered, eyeing the moving picture with slight paranoia, after fighting inanimate objects Ness found objects that seemly moved on their own a bit worrying. He sighed and walked up to the man, who was probably Ron's father, "Excuse me sir," he looked up and closed the paper, allowing Ness to read the caption.
Sirius Black Escapes Azkaban.
Ness frowned slightly but continued his question, "You wouldn't happen to know where Kings Cross is, would you? I'm supposed to catch a train to a school called Hogwarts."
"Kings Cross? Well it's just up north from here." The man answered, he was about to say more when the door opened and Harry, Ron and Hermione returned with an ugly looking orange cat and a mob of red haired people.
"Back so soon?" the man asked, probably Mr. Weasley now that Ness thought about it, a plump woman carrying a bunch of shopping bags.
"Yea, the pet shop worker said that Scabbers will probably get better with this rat tonic." Ron grumbled, not sounding pleased with the news, "Honestly Ron, it's better than nothing." A tall red haired boy with owl like glasses said, he seemed to be the eldest child of the group. Ginny noticed him and waved hello.
"Hello Molly." Mr. Weasley greeted, "Did you find everything okay?" Mrs. Weasley glared at a pair of twins who feigned innocent and muttered, "More or less." Before she and the others headed up to their rooms to drop off the shopping bags.
"So if I just walk north from here I'll hit the Kings Cross Station?" Ness asked, wanting to make sure that he was heading the right direction. "Walk? You plan on walking from here?" Mr. Weasley questioned, Ness nodded.
"Yea, I live out in the country, so if I have to walk, I'll walk."
Mr. Weasley blinked before he shook his head, however before he could confirm Ness's question Mrs. Weasley arrived with Ginny, "Arthur, where's Tom? I want to ask him a question about tonight's dining situation."
"Tom's in the back dear." Mr. Weasley replied before he turned back to Ness. Mrs. Weasley noticed him and jumped, "Good gracious!" Mrs. Weasley yelped, Ness sighed and pointed to his eyes, "Don't worry, I'm normal." Ness joked.
"He startled me a bit as well." Ginny said, Ness extended his hand to Mrs. Weasley and introduced himself, "I'm Ness EarthBound, and as you can guess, I'm not from around here."
"Nice to meet you." Mrs. Weasley said, recomposing herself and forcing a small smile, "I'm Molly Weasley, and this is Ginny, my daughter."
"We've already met before." Ginny reminded her, "Remember? I told you about him at the bookstore." Mrs. Weasley nodded and tried for small talk, "So you're heading to Hogwarts as well?"
"Apparently." Ness said, "I'm a second year student."
"Really?" Ginny frowned slightly and said, "I don't remember you being in school last year, what house are you in?"
"House?" Ness questioned, he knew boarding schools were fancy-pancy since Jeff talked about it whenever he came over Ness's house, but he never mentioned different houses in the school, just that his school was like an everyday school only much more prestigious since it focused solely on science.
"I'm not in a house, I'm a new student." This earning surprised glances from the Weasley family, or a quarter of it since the other boys were still upstairs.
"Are you from a gifted family then?" Mr. Weasley asked, Ness shook his head no he was tempted to say that he wasn't even a wizard but had a sinking feeling that he was. Hopefully he would be proven wrong in the future.
"Odd. I've never heard of a student skipping a year." Mrs. Weasley mused, "How old are you?"
"I'm 12, turning 13 in December." Ness replied, "I received the letter last month." Mrs. And Mr. Weasley shared a baffled look while Ginny quickly changed the subject, "So what happened to your mother and sister?"
"They headed back home, we drove ten hours here and Mom figured it would be easier for me to stay the night then to drive back up here." Ness adjusted his hat and asked, "Does this Hogwarts place accept baseball bats?"
"Baseball bats?" Ginny questioned, "What are those?" Ness practically fell over in shock, he knew that London was in a different continent, heck! Different world from America but not knowing Baseball?! It was practically a crime!
"It's a sport back home." Ness bluntly said, not wanting to explain to much since that might make it more confusing for Ginny. Ginny nodded and asked, "Is it like Qudditch?"
Now it was Ness's turn to give Ginny a confushed look, "Does it have 9 players, a bat, four bases and a homerun zone?" Ness asked.
"Err… No, you fly around on broomsticks and-," Ginny stopped herself and sheepishly said, "Perhaps it's better if you see than for me to explain it."
"Yea, that sounds like a good idea." Ness said.
"Ness, would you like to join us for dinner?" Mr. Weasley asked, Ness frowned but slowly nodded his head, "Sure, but why the invitation?"
"No reason." Ness frowned but didn't push it, after all, as long as he had steak then he would be fairly happy.
XxXxXx
Dinner was somewhat amazing. They didn't have steak (London had problems Ness decided) but they did have a good chocolate pudding and conversation went fairly well, or Ness figured that since he kept to himself and focused on observing how the Weasley family, Harry and Hermione interacted.
He thought it was a good plan since he was wearing 'loud' clothing compared to the subtle colors everyone else seemed to wear, more proof that London was extremely weird.
It wasn't until Fred, one of the twins asked, "How're we getting to King's Cross tomorrow, Dad?"
"The Ministry's providing a couple of cars." Mr. Weasley answered, for some reason, this answer caused everyone to look up from their pudding, except Ness who was still eating his, he merely glanced up before resuming his desert.
"Why?" Percy asked, and judging by the curious tone in his voice, getting a car ride wasn't an everyday thing. "It's because of you Percy." George said, sounding so serious that Ness looked up, then looked down to stifle his laughter as Fred finished, "There going to have little flags that say HB on them, for Humongous Bighead."
Percy flushed an angry red as everyone suddenly became extremely interested in their pudding once Mr. Weasley had recollected himself from a small laughing fit he explained why he got the Ministry cars, "Well, as we haven't got one anymore, and as I work there, I'm doing them a favor."
Ness frowned as he noticed Mr. Weasley's ears flush a faint red but didn't question it since Mrs. Weasley briskly said, "A good thing too, do you realize how much luggage you've all got between you? A nice sight you'd be on Muggle Underground… You're all packed aren't you?"
"Ron hasn't packed all his new things yet," Percy said in a haughty voice, "He's dumped them on my bed." Mrs. Weasley glared down the table at Ron and warned, "You'd better be packed before morning, we won't have time for last minute preparations."
Ron nodded then scowled at Percy who ignored him and resumed eating his pudding, Ness thought about packing his own stuff until he remembered that he had in between finding the correct stores. Once dinner was over Ness headed up to his room, only to be stopped by Mr. Weasley, "Err, Ness if you want, you could come with us in the morning. To King's Cross Station."
Ness stopped and felt a small knot of guilt appear in his stomach. He had already asked them for directions and found himself being invited to Dinner, and he didn't want to impose on them any further, "No, that's alright you've already done so much for me, despite being a stranger." Ness said managing a smile, "I'm pretty sure I could find it on my own."
"No, it's fine. Honest." Mr. Weasley returned his smile although Ness could spot his ears turning a light red again.
"If you say so…" Ness finally said, before he retreated to his room. He flopped on the bed and reached up to adjust his baseball hat, only to find that it was gone. "I must have left it in the dining room." Ness realized, stifling a groan at the thought of leaving his beloved baseball hat.
He got up and headed downstairs, ignoring the loud argument coming from the room that Percy and Ron shared and carefully sneaking down the rickety stairs, "Hello Red Cap." Ness said, once he spotted his bright red and blue cap, belonging to the Red Cap baseball team. He placed it back on his head. He was about to return to his room when he heard a hushed, yet angry argument.
Ness was about to leave when he heard Harry's name, he stopped and ducked under the table, hoping the dim lights didn't catch his yellow and blue striped shirt.
"It doesn't make sense not to tell him." Mr. Weasley said, sounding a bit heated, "Harry's got a right to know, I've tried to tell Fudge that but he insists on treating Harry like a child. He's thirteen years old and—"
"Arthur the truth would terrify him!" Mrs. Weasley argued, cutting her husband off mid-sentence, "He would be happy not knowing for Pete's sakes!"
"I wouldn't." Ness thought, he listened some more before he grew bored and decided that it wasn't his place to ease drop and turned to leave he was halfway to the stairs after crawling under dusty tables when he heard Mrs. Weasley say, "Besides, if anything goes wrong that Dumbledore or Ness will step in help!"
Mr. Weasley made a noise between a scoff and a rough cough, Ness perked up, wondering if these odd people knew something he didn't, was he actually not a wizard? Was he just getting sent to Hogwarts to be a bodyguard or something? Mr. Weasley had mention something about Siruis Black gunning for Harry before he escaped his prison. Was he out for revenge for this You-Know-Who person?
"Molly, we don't even know if he is the real deal." Mr. Weasley said, lowering his voice slightly, "After all, he first showed up in the Daily Prophet as a goofy side story." Ness frowned, insulted that he and his friends' heroic adventure were being treated like a comic strip then at the fact that someone had been watching them.
He left after that and snuck back to his room for some much needed rest. He didn't even notice Harry who was listening in as well, or the fact that he had forgot to unpack his pajamas. He just flopped on the lumpy mattress and fell asleep.