Hogwarts: Magick and Drugs

Chapter Two: The Shed

The afternoon sun had long gone when Harry had finished polishing Dudley's boxing trophies. It had been a long time since he had been given chores in the Dursley's household, he pretty much assumed that they were too terrified of his 'abnormality' to make requests; but Vernon Dursley was not impressed when a drenched and bedraggled looking Harry, had come knocking on the front door at 8:30pm the night before. The argument that ensued was heated and lengthy, Harry screaming about being locked out, Vernon yelling about the Dursley name being stained with the likes of Harry, Petunia frantically hushing everyone in case Lisa Philpot heard and Dudley complained loudly about a scratched playstation disc.

'I'm finished.' he said, coming into the kitchen and dropping the rag on the draining bored.

'Don't put that there!' Petunia snapped, 'You'll stain the metallic.'

'Sorry.'

'You heard your aunt, boy!' Uncle Vernon yelled, 'Get that cloth away!'

Harry snatched the cloth up and tossed it onto the windowsill. Turning his back, he ran the warm water and washed the scent of lavender polish from his hands. He glanced at the clock - 6:45pm. He had been thinking about last night, about his arrangements with Peachy Keen, the strange boy from the tunnel. Was it wise to meet with him? He had only known him an hour or so, he could be anyone. He glanced down at his jeans pocket, the outline of the cigarette was showing. For a moment, he tried to remember the taste of smoking, how it felt, but he could not recall the texture it left in his mouth, not even the crackling sound of tobacco taking to the flame.

I'll try again later, he thought to himself, just to remember the taste and the smell; just to tell Ron and Hermione. Nothing else.

'Your tea is in the pot,' Aunt Petunia said.

Harry looked: cold beans, dry toast and a burnt sausage. 'I'll have it later,' he remarked, throwing a look of disgust at the back of her head.

'You'll have it now or never,' Uncle Vernon snapped, pointing at him with a fork, his half chewed sausage dangling from the end.

'Fine then!' Harry barked, 'See you at breakfast.'

He stormed from the kitchen, grabbing his jacket from the hallway and slammed the door behind him. Stomping down the garden path, he just resisted temptation to crash through his aunts flowers. His jacket, still damp from last night, clung to his back and sent a strong shiver up his spine. As he flew through Privet Drive in a rage, he imagined he looked a right mess; his face tinged with raging red, his hair flying in the breeze and his clothes covered in polish stains, not to mention the smell of flowers that was now radiating from him.

He arrived at the tunnel quicker than expected, surprised to find Peachy already there. He nodded at him, a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth and a peaked cap covering his cropped hair.

'Took you long enough,' Peachy said, handing him a cigarette.

'I've got the other one you gave me,' Harry said, pulling it from his pocket. It was bent awkwardly. He accepted the lighter from Peachy and dangling the cigarette from his mouth, lit it with ease, his knuckles white with temper as he forced the spark. Inhaling deeply, he allowed the smoke linger in his mouth, memorising every feeling, every scent and then exhaled. He was surprised at how much more calm he felt.

'Come on, let's go.' Peachy said, turning from him and leading the way out through the other side of the tunnel.

Harry followed, the cigarette dangling from between his fingers, casually taking a puff every now and then. Right now he couldn't care just how weird it was to be following Peachy Keen, he didn't care if Peachy was Voldemort in disguise, right now he just wanted to sit down somewhere, with normal people and chill.

'Here we are, look,' Peachy said, pointing to a row of dilapidated flats at the bottom of a hill.

'Where are we?' Harry asked, looking around. The floor was littered with shards of glass, broken bicycle wheels, black bags full of concealed rubbish and empty drinking cans.

'The Glen,' Peachy said, kicking a can of Dutch Gold larger from his path, 'Don't you know? It's been this way for years, only a few people still live here, old folks mostly. As you can see, it's not the nicest of places.' He guided Harry into the third flat, each of the windows were boarded up and coloured graffiti tags of names and love hearts covered the walls. 'You don't seem very familiar with these areas.' He added, casting a glance at Harry.

'I've never been this far away from my house,' Harry explained, hoping to ward Peachy from his suspicions. 'I'm only here during the summer time so I don't bother exploring.'

Peachy shrugged and stopped outside a wooden door. He knocked twice, then whistled. Harry was about to question this, when he heard a latch slide from behind the door. It cracked a little, and a pair of eyes peered out.

'Whose tha?' the gruff voice asked, his eyes resting fiercely on Harry.

'This is Neville,' said Peachy, pulling Harry closer to the door. The eyes bore into his own. 'He's fine.'

The voice grunted and the owner opened the door, revealing himself to be a tall, thick, elephant like teenager. He had hair falling in greasy waves around his pimpled face and the stubbles of a moustache on his top lip. Harry looked up at him, gave a half hearted smile and grunted a 'Thanks.'.

Peachy closed the door behind him and cleared his throat for attention. There were only four others in the room, not including the elephant like body guard; three girls and one other boy. Each of them sat on battered old couches, clutching brown bottles in their hands, and dangling cigarettes from between their fingers. Harry would have been lying if he said that he did not feel intimidated. Each of them drew their gaze to Harry, their eyes examining him from head to toe. He subconsciously flattened his hair over his scar.

'Everyone, this is Neville,' Peachy said, pointing to Harry, 'He lives on the other side of the tunnel and he's cool with me.'

A moment of silence then a round of 'Hey, Neville' , 'Alright kid' and 'S'up' met his ears. He tried to smile in what he hoped was a cool and calm manner, but knew it was probably a ridiculous twitch of his mouth.

'This is Emma, and she's brilliant with drawing,' Peachy explained, pointing to a blonde girl in the far chair, 'that's Rupert, her boyfriend, and that's Julia and Dru, and that's Eric' he said pointing to the dark skinned boy, the brown haired girl with glasses, the short haired girl with colourful bracelets and the elephant like teenager.

'Come and sit here,' Dru said, patting the empty seat next to her.

Harry made his way across the littered floor and perched himself awkwardly on the edge of the couch. 'Thanks.' he muttered, then began picking at the knee of his jeans.

'So Neville, what's it like on the other side of the tunnel?' Rupert asked. His voice was light, but had a thick London accent.

Harry shrugged. 'It's alright, I suppose. Not much difference I mean, it's really boring.'

'Any bobbies been around that way lately?'

Harry frowned. 'Bobbies?'

Rupert chuckled, slapping his knee and jerking foreword with laughter. 'Jesus, you really are from the other side aren't you?' he laughed, ignoring the look of annoyance on Harry's face.

'Shut up, Rupert,' Peachy said, handing a brown bottle to Harry and seating himself on the edge of Julia's chair. 'Bobbies are pigs, the shades. Policemen, y'know?'

'Oh yeah, them,' Harry said, feeling a little embarrassed, 'No, they haven't been around. Why?'

Rupert, Eric and Peachy exchanged looks. Harry watched them.

'Promise not to tell?' Peachy said.

'Yeah, sure.'

'He said promise!' Eric barked.

Harry jumped. 'Alright, alright. I promise not to tell.'

Peachy took a swig from his bottle and turned to face Harry. 'The other side, your side,' he began, 'Well, you're all very well known for being stuck up and fancy about what you all have. This side, my side, well … we're different. We like to have fun and have a laugh, like right now.'

'How we're all hanging out in the Shed,' Rupert said.

'That's what this place is called,' Julia added, 'The Shed.'

'Sometimes we like to smoke and do some stuff,' Peachy continued, 'Stuff that isn't exactly legal, like.'

'You mean like steal?' Harry asked, a note of dryness on his voice. Stealing wasn't exactly top notch for his standards, he'd often stole ink from Ron, or chocolate frogs from Hermione - all in good spirit though!

Eric scoffed loudly and rolled his eyes. 'He doesn't mean steal you twit, he means popping pills! Jesus.'

'Relax Eric,' Dru said, throwing him a look.

'He's from the other side mate,' Rupert smirked, 'Remember?'

Harry clenched his fist. 'Shut up.' he snapped. He glanced quickly to Eric, monitoring his reaction, wondering if he was going to pound him in the face. Instead, Eric just smirked and threw a cigarette but at Rupert.

'Pills. Poppers. Reefs.' Peachy explained, knocking them off on his fingers as he listed them. 'You name it.'

'But why?' Harry asked.

'Look, Neville,' Eric said, turning to face him, 'Imagine having a really rough day. You've ditched school and got caught, you've got detention, your parents are wrecking your head, telling you what to do, you feel pissed off and angry and just can't fucking take it anymore. What are you gonna' do, kill yourself?'

'That'd be stupid,' Dru said.

'Agreed.' they all muttered.

'So what do you do?' Eric continued and from within his pocked he pulled a plastic bag, 'You roll a joint, take a few puffs and forget the world. Leave all them bastards behind, Neville. It's the only way.'

A murmured round of agreeing came from each of them. Harry nodded, acknowledging Eric's sentiments. Leave them all behind? That sounded amazing. As the others broke into casual talk, discussing people they had met over the week, school, the best place to buy, Harry swirled the amber liquid in his bottle. It smelled strong, almost stale. The label read Budweiser, he was familiar with this beer having seen Uncle Vernon serve it at a barbeque in July. From what he witnessed there, it must have been the next best thing since juices, because everyone seemed to drink it quickly. He brought the bottle to his lips, tipped it slightly and let a trickle of froth in; it wasn't exactly tasty, it was strong and made his mouth water. He took another swig, more this time.

'So Neville,' Dru said, nudging him gently with her elbow, 'Do you go to school around here?'

Harry swallowed the beer and shook his head. 'No, I don't.' he replied, picking at the hole in his jeans again.

'Oh? Where do you go then? I've heard of people being home schooled.'

'I go to St. Brutus's,' he said, hoping that this answer was enough. He wished he could say he went to an amazing magical school, one where trees fought you, stair cases tried to trip you and where he spent most days escaping the clutches of deadly enemies.

'I haven't heard of that school, is it near?' she asked.

'No.'

She nodded, making a little noise and then smiled at him. For a while, Harry examined her bracelets, she had at least 20 of them around her wrists of all different colours; some with glitter, some with stripes and others with dots. He had never seen them before, but they looked interesting - colourful and unusual, fashionable, he assumed. He put the bottle to his mouth again, shocked to find he had emptied it.

'Another?' Rupert asked.

Harry shrugged. 'Yeah, please.'

He took the bottle, twisted the cap and swirled the froth. This time, it tasted fresh and sweet, like a long lost taste; a taste he had been craving for some time, but could never find it. His fingers moved to his pocket, was he looking for a cigarette? He shook the thought. As he surveyed them, his eyes flicking from each face to the next, he thought about just how much of an unusual bunch they were. How strange it was that yesterday he was that loner teenager that wondered around the streets, rummaging in bins for newspapers but today, he was Neville, that normal teenager who smokes and is having his first real teenage experience.

Written by A Silver Sickle

Comments are appreciated.
A special thanks to the user SITHTAR for being the first to review this 'experiment' as I like to call it. Appreciation to those who added this story to alerts etc,.