Donnie Black and the Philosopher's Stone
Hi guys, thanks for all the follows I've got this story! So here's chapter 2, hope you like it.
Chapter 2
After shouting a final goodbye to Harry and Hagrid, Donnie turned and weaved through the crowds lining Diagon Alley. On his way up to Ollivander's where his foster mother would be waiting, he stood outside Quality Quidditch Supplies where other boys and girls were ogling the new Nimbus 2000 broomstick.
'That's the fastest model yet!' A small girl grinned to her friend. Inside the store, the crowds were even thicker, but Donnie pushed his way past a stand of Tornados Quidditch robes to look at the new broomstick on display in the store. Donnie saw the blonde boy from Madame Malkin's across the shop's threshold but didn't make eye contact. But a blonde woman with a high pointed nose was glaring at him curiously. Donnie supposed she was the boy's mother, and the man with lengthened hair besides her was her husband. Donnie looked away and looked back at the broom, admiring the polished handle, Nimbus 2000 stamped on the handle in gold, all the twigs neat and orderly.
Donnie glanced back up and his grey eyes met those of the woman and now her husband, both staring at him coolly, whilst their son gaped at the broom with everyone else. Donnie felt uncomfortable under their scrutiny but was saved by the punch on his arm from Ethan who had arrived with his friends.
'Hey baby brother, dreaming of a new broom? Not going to happen, I'm next in line for a new broom.' Donnie rolled his eyes as Ethan's friends all chatted excitedly over the new Nimbus.
'Hey, Ethan?' Ethan grunted to show he was listening as he gaped at the broom with everyone else.
'Are those blonde people on the other side looking over here?' But Ethan never answered as a handbag came out of nowhere and hit them both over the head. Christina Madden had become tired of waiting and had sought out her youngest foster son.
'Have you been for your potions ingredients yet?' She asked Ethan who, pale faced, shook his head and dashed from the shop before another whack came. Donnie stifled a giggle but the look in his foster-mother's eyes shut him right up. Christina grabbed the boy's arm and began to drag him from the shop. The crowds were less dense in the doorway, but just as they reached the door, the pale blonde family reached the door as well. The man who had a snake's head atop his cane smirked slightly at the sight of Donnie, who just looked confused. Christina paled considerably as the adults made eye contact with the pair of them and hastily dragged Donnie out of the shop just as the Tornado's robes interested him.
'What's going on?' Donnie asked as they moved rather quickly through the Alley than normal.
'Nothing, Donald-' – Donnie cringed at his full name – '-Those wizards in the shop, just...just stay away from wizards like that.' She stopped outside Ollivander's and glanced up at the clock perched atop of Gringotts at the bottom of the Alley.
'We're late. Hurry up. I need to find Ethan and we can get home.' Christina marched off down the Alley, her robes waving in the wind as she went. Donnie shrugged her weird behaviour off and pushed the door open.
He had been inside Ollivander's only once: when Ethan had broken his wand by sitting on it, thinking it indestructible. The musty smell of dust and aging wood wasn't as bad as it could be in such an old store. The last time he was here, Mr. Ollivander had not paid him any attention, but as soon as the silver haired man came around the corner, he gave a small sad smile.
'Ah, yes, Mister Black. I wondered when I'd be seeing you.' The old man shuffled over to one of the many shelves and his hands waved over numerous wand boxes before pulling out a tape measure from nowhere.
'Yes I remember when your mother came in here for her first wand: Cherry, unicorn hair, twelve inches. Very good for charms. Which is your wand arm young man?' Donnie stretched out his left arm as the tape measure measured his arm before Ollivander shuffled off again to the opposite set of shelves.
'Your father's wand however, was Maple, dragon heart string at eleven and a half inches. Very good for hexes. Yes I remember that wand...' Ollivander trailed off and Donnie felt his stomach churn, knowing what Ollivander was thinking: it was the same as what Donnie thought of his father every night when he couldn't help it. Ollivander came back with several wand boxes. Donnie opened one wand which seemed to be made of Yew. He gave it a wave and a set of blue sparks shot out and obliterated the plant on the window sill.
'Nope.' Ollivander took the wand back and pushed forth another box. It took another four tries until Donnie pulled the black box forwards and took out a pale brown wand, a curved handle carved with a constellation of stars towards the base. Before he could give it a wave a warm feeling spread through him, to the roots of his hair to his toes and he couldn't help but smile. Ollivander also smiled, knowing nothing else in his store would be broken.
'Oak, twelve and a half inches, dragon heart string. A very good wand for curses.' Ollivander stated the last one with a slight caution in his voice. Donnie paid the right amount of galleons and turned to leave the shop.
'Mr. Black? Please do not make the same mistake as your brother Ethan by sitting on your wand.' Donnie stifled a snigger and left the shop, nearly running into the man with the long blonde hair. His hand gripped his shoulder in a vice like grip as he studied the boys face. He looked over to his wife and spoke quietly.
'Most defiantly his...' Donnie escaped the grip and ran down the Diagon Alley towards the Leaky Cauldron entrance, gripping his wand in his hand.
X-X-H-P-X-X
September first could not come soon enough to Donnie. He had socialised very little with people his own age apart from his siblings and a few of the Muggle children in their town. But the idea of going to Hogwarts got better by the day. He had read half of his school books, tried to make Lucy's cat fly and set fire to the twigs of Ethan's broom with his new wand and he was certain his foster parents wanted him out of the house by now.
The morning of September first dawned and as soon as he awoke at half five, Donnie could not go back to sleep. Instead he moved around his small bedroom, dressing in Muggle clothing as he would get changed on the train and pulled his trunk out from under his bed and packed his clothes, books, cauldron and telescope as best as he could, stuffing some comics of Martin Miggs the Mad Muggle on top. Having grown up in a Muggle community, Donnie had had a double life of a young wizard and a homeschooled Muggle boy. The culture had rubbed off on all of them, so it was no surprise that Donnie had his Walkman headphones around his neck when his foster father Kenneth pushed the three trunks into the back of the family car.
Kenneth Madden worked in the Department of magical transportation in the Ministry of Magic. Despite being able to have ordered a Portkey to platform nine and three quarters, they decided to drive to London. So after a final helping of bacon and eggs in the kitchen of the family home, they set off. All the way Donnie was excited at the prospect of his travel to Hogwarts.
'Will you just sit down already?' His sister Lucy snapped and Donnie scowled before pulling his headphones over his head. Marcus had managed to get his favourite Wizarding band – The Weird Sisters – onto a Muggle tape to play in the device. They soon reached London and their trunks were placed up on the trolleys. Outside the brick barrier, Christina briefly hugged her foster children before dashing off back to the car.
'Come on.' Ethan stated as they approached the barrier. Donnie had heard of the barrier but didn't like the idea of running into it, despite seeing Ethan and Lucy both go first. He was left outside the platform with the Muggles as he watched the barrier.
'Donnie!' Donnie turned as Harry called out. He ran from a fat man with a moustache who glared at the two boys. Harry dashed over with his trolley, a large snowy owl in a cage on top of his trunk. Harry looked relived to see someone he knew rather than find the platform by himself.
'Do you know how to get on the platform?'
'Yeah it's through there.' Donnie pointed to the barrier as a family of redheads started to run through without Muggles noticing. Once the last boy ran through, they made their way over nervously.
'Well...here goes nothing.' Donnie began to charge at the barrier, wind whipping at his long dark hair. He jumped onto the trolley as he closed his eyes, still expecting to crash but suddenly the wind and noise of Muggle trains disappeared and he opened his eyes just in time to stop himself crashing onto the tracks before a large scarlet steam engine.
'Whoa!' Donnie pulled the trolley to a halt before the train and waited as Harry plucked up the courage and ran through the barrier, in just as much awe as Donnie was at the sight of the magnificent steam train.
'Let's go find a seat.' Harry said and Donnie followed. Neither of them noticed any of the adults look at them funny, as if seeing ghosts from the past. They heaved their trunks and packages as well as Hedwig's cage onto the train from the platform and found an empty carriage towards the end of the train. The two boys helped each other push their trunks up onto the racks and placed Hedwig up next to Harry's. The two sat opposite each other, hot but happy. On the platform many were saying goodbye to their parents and younger siblings.
'I can't believe we're actually going to Hogwarts.' Donnie smiled and leaned his head up against the seat.
'I know. I was going to a local Muggle school. It wasn't with Dudley so it seemed ok but this is so much more amazing.' Harry began telling Donnie of his life with his relatives the Dursleys who didn't sound pleasant at all. Apparently before his letter Harry had slept under the stairs in the four-bed roomed house. Donnie told Harry about his life with his foster family, Ethan always annoying his and Lucy never doing anything but her homework. Neither of them had noticed the train had started moving and left London behind them.
'What happened to your real parents?' Harry asked, in awe of the life of wizard.
'My Mum died when I was a few months old. My Dad...I'd really not like to say where he ended up.' Harry didn't push it and started asking about what he knew about Hogwarts before their compartment door opened and a red-haired boy poked his head in.
'Sorry. Do you mind though, everywhere else is full?'
'Not at all.' Harry said and Donnie nodded, both beckoning the red haired boy in. He clearly was a first year too and looked rather nervous under his freckles. He sat on the same side as Donnie and looked between the two of them.
'I'm Ron by the way, Ron Weasley.'
'I'm Donnie Black and this is Harry Potter.' Ron's eyes widened and Donnie grinned at the way Harry went bashful.
'So...so it's true? DO you really have the...the...' Ron started to stutter and gestured to his head. Harry grinned and showed off his scar.
'Wicked.' Ron stated.
'Totally.' Donnie grinned as he began to re-wind his Walkman, Ron staring at it. As the Hogwarts express travelled over country land, the three talked of their families, life and what they thought would happen at Hogwarts. Ron told them how his brother Fred told him they had to wrestle a troll and Donnie told them how Ethan said first-years were thrown into the lake with the giant squid. Soon a trolley was rattling down the corridor and a plump little witch pushed open the door to reveal a trolley loaded with sweets of all kinds.
'Anything off the trolley dears?' Ron looked away and muttered something about sandwiches. Both Donnie and Harry jumped up. Donnie asked for a packet of Bertie Bott's every flavour beans and some chocolate frogs, whilst Harry gaped in awe at the assortment of sweets, having only known Muggle sweets. In the end he paid for one of everything. Ron had unpacked his sandwiches but they soon lay unforgotten as they all indulged in the sweets. Ron was chomping some jelly slugs, Donnie with a cauldron cake when Harry picked up a chocolate frog.
'There not real frogs, are they?'
'Just a spell.' Donnie said between mouthfuls and Ron nodded.
'It's the card you want. I've got about 500. How many do you have Donnie?'
'About 250. My brother Marcus claims to have all of them.' Harry opened the pack and the frog jumped out onto the window.
'Watch it!' Ron cried but the frog jumped from the window in seconds. Ron shook his head but Harry was more interested in the card.
'I got Dumbledore!' Harry said gleefully and was shocked when the picture disappeared, not understanding wizard pictures moved. They all opened their chocolate frogs to collect their cards. Soon Harry and a good start to his collection whilst Donnie finally found the Morganna card he'd been looking for. The countryside outside the train was slowly becoming wilder when the door opened and a round-faced boy looked frantic.
'Have you seen a toad? He keeps getting away from me.' The three of them shook their heads and Harry reassured him it would turn up. They all opened a pack of Bertie Bott's beans and Donnie explained to Harry what the dangerous flavours were. On Ron's lap, a rat was nibbling on a green bean.
'This is Scabbers, by the way. Pathetic isn't he.' Ron grimaced at the rat.
'Just a little.' Harry said quietly.
'Fred gave me a spell to turn his yellow, wanna see?' The two boys looked excited and Ron pulled his wand out and cleared his throat but before he could say the incantation, again the compartment door opened. A girl with bushy brown hair and large front teeth came in already dressed in her new Hogwarts black robes.
'Have any of you seen a toad? A boy named Neville has lost one.'
'We already told him we haven't.' Donnie spoke up from his half-eaten Pumpkin Pasty, feeling sick from all the sugar.
'Oh, are you doing magic?' The girl said as she looked at Ron's wand and sat down opposite. Ron cleared his throat once more and began the spell.
'Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow.
Turn this stupid fat rat yellow!'
The bean Scabbers was eating shot away, but nothing else happened. The girl looked sceptical and voiced her ideas on the weak spell, deciding to demonstrate what she'd already learnt from her books and made the thick bound of tape on the bridge of Harry's glasses disappear, repairing the glasses in the process. They all looked at the mended glasses in awe when the girl saw the scar under Harry's hairline.
'You're Harry Potter! I'm Hermione Granger. And...you two are?'
'Ron Weasley.' Ron stated between mouthfuls of chocolate cake and Hermione turned to Donnie.
'Donnie Black.' She nodded to them both.
'Pleasure. You three better change into your robes, I expect we'll be arriving soon.' Just as she began to leave the compartment, she turned and looked at Ron.
'Oh, you've got dirt on your nose by the way. Just there.' She pointed at Ron's nose before disappearing, Ron staring daggers into her back. They opened up their trunks and changed into their robes over their clothing. Ron's were slightly too short and you could see his trainers beneath the black hem. Donnie pulled his headphones around his neck and tucked the Walkman into his robe pocket alongside his wand. True to Hermione's words, the train was slowing down and excitement grew inside their stomachs as they looked outside the window to the blackened world.
'This is it.' Donnie spoke in a quiver as the other two nodded, clearly just as excited and as nervous. At last the Hogwarts Express came to a complete stop.
Thanks for reading!
