After their afternoon classes, Harry and Hermione headed back to their apartment. Harry thought it was a pretty nice place with a rather large living room, two bedrooms (Ron and Hermione shared) and, much to Ron's delight, a television with cable. Ron had never watched television and found it to be completely the kitchen was an odd assortment of cooking supplies and potions ingredients, with a rather large caldron in the corner for emergency potion making. Harry and Ron kept their racing brooms in the corner of the living room across from the TV, just in bookshelf was full of Hermione's books from Hogwarts as well as some muggle , it was a rather cozy place but Harry knew if a muggle ever came to call, they might find some of the decor a bit odd!
"So how was school today?" Ron asked with a smirk. "Learn anything useful?" They were eating dinner later that night, Ron's newly discovered favorite muggle food- pepperoni pizza with a side of garlic knots.
"Yes actually," replied Hermione "and we made friends, too!"
Ron raised his eyebrows in surprise "Really? Muggle friends? Tell me all about it! What were they like? Did they have felly tones they were always looking at like all those muggles in London? Do they own guns and wear cowboy hats?"
"Seriously Ron, they're called telephones, get it right. And the portable ones are called cell phones. And yes, they had them, all muggles do it seems like!" said Harry. "And of course, they didn't wear cowboy hats, we're in Seattle, not a cow ranch. But there was something odd about these two. They were muggles as far as we could tell, but the girl, Nessie, could see my patronous!"
"Really? Wow! What are the odds you would randomly come across someone who could see a patronous! Why do you think she could? Do you think she's a witch?" Ron asked excitedly.
"No, Harry and I discussed this and did some research and there's no witches with her name!" answered Hermione while she picked the pepperoni off her pizza. "I guess it doesn't really matter anyways, we're supposed to be focusing on blending in as muggles so we can learn about Americans! Besides, Harry really shouldn't have used his wand to send the patronous in front of muggles in the first place! Maybe we should get some of those cell phones all the muggles have."
Ron nodded in agreement and returned to his pizza. He had a look on his face like he was bursting to say something.
"What is it Ron?" asked Harry.
"I met a wizard at work today!" he exclaimed. "I was just minding my business, making a latte and I looked over and this guy was reading a book called 'Quiddich Through the Ages: Volume 2, North America'."
Hermione eyed him suspiciously "Did you talk to him?"
"Well kind of," Ron answered "I had to in order to take his coffee order, didn't I?"
"You know what I mean, Ron"
"OK, ok, yes I talked to him! Are you happy? I found out some stuff about a quidditch meetup nearby and a bar for wizards. You won't believe what it's called: The Leaky Caldron! Just like the one in London!" said Ron. "And they're having a big party there on Halloween! I think we should go, don't you? It sounds like fun anyway!"
"Oh! I didn't realize the was more than one!" said Harry "That sounds wicked, let's go!"
"I don't know guys, we're really not supposed to be doing that sort of thing" Hermione reminded them.
"Oh c'mon Hermione, it'll be fun! Besides, what's the worst that can happen?" said Ron.
"Hmmm, famous last words! Okay, I'll think about. Meanwhile, let's go get our new cell phones tonight!" said Hermione.
The next day Harry and Hermione drove off to class while Ron headed into the Green Griffin for work. Hermione was playing with her new cell phone while Harry drove. She was especially excited about the texting feature and kept sending Harry and Ron text messages, using as many emojis as she could make work in each one.
"So I was wondering," Harry started "how come these cell phones work around us, with us being magical and such? I remember a few years ago you said muggle technology didn't work around wizards."
"Oh yeah, well that's only true when there is a lot of wizards in one place, like Hogwarts, or Diagon Alley, or if there is a very powerful spell happening. Like when you get really angry and the lights flicker. But if it's just one or a few of us the magic doesn't affect the muggle technology." Hermione explained.
"Oh. I guess I should have thought of that from living with the Dursleys. When I was home for the summer holidays all their electronics still worked just fine, I just never really thought it was weird before now!" said Harry.
He parked the car in the student lot and they headed onto campus. Harry wondered if they would see their new friends again today, although he didn't have his American History class again until tomorrow, he doubted it. Just then he saw the huge outline of a man's body walking toward him holding hands with a slender redhead. No doubt it was Jake and Nessie.
"Hey Jake!" Harry called out, waving them over.
Harry and Hermione waited while Jake and Nessie walked up, smiling and waving good morning. "Hey guys, how's it going?" said Jacob.
"Excellent!" replied Harry, "we've just set up our new cell phones last night!"
"How was your night?" Hermione added politely.
Jake and Nessie exchanged glances. "You'll never believe what happened!" exclaimed Nessie. "We were out in the woods, hunt…. errrr, hiking and we saw this boy with a stick. He was waving it around and muttering words. At first nothing happened, and then the stick shot sparks out of the end of it! It was like magic! It was like the stick lit up bright like a flashlight!"
Jake rolled his eyes "Well Nessie claims she saw it, but I didn't see it with my own eyes so I'll just have to take her word for it."
"I know what I saw Jake" Nessie said, frowning and crossing her arms over her chest. "The guy was making sparks come out of a stick, and then light. There's no explanation for it that I can think of. You guys believe me, don't you?" she asked, turning to Harry and Hermione.
Harry didn't know how to answer. There was a guy in the woods doing magic. Not very advanced magic from the sounds of it, but still. That was two days in a row that Nessie had seen someone doing magic. He frowned and then realized she was staring at him waiting for him to answer. "Yeah sure, of course. We believe you." he said, and turned to Hermione.
"What did this man look like? And how far out in the woods were you?" she asked sharply.
Renesmee looked surprised at Hermione's response. "Oh, we were about 3 miles outside of town. I couldn't see his face because his back was turned to us, but he was a little taller than you a little chubby, and had blonde hair." She continued to look at Hermione with a confused expression on her face, but didn't ask any questions.
"Hmmmm," said Hermione, and Harry knew she was thinking about the wizard registry and trying to match the description up to one of the wizards on it. "Well, maybe it was just a torch?" she asked finally.
"A torch?" asked Jake with a puzzled look "why would someone be in the woods lighting a torch?"
Nessie smirked. "She means flashlight, that's what the Brits call a flashlight, Jake. And I'm sure it wasn't a flashlight, but I guess we'll never know! Probably some sort of kids toy, anyways." she added. "Well, we should get going! Want to meet up for coffee later? I found this great new place nearby called the Green Griffin!"
"Sure!" replied Harry, "our friend Ron works there! See you this afternoon."
"Oh wait," said Nessie, "give me your new cell phone numbers so we can text each other about the timing for this afternoon!"
They all exchanged numbers and then Harry and Hermione headed off to Bio 101 in the science building.
Later that day Harry and Hermione headed over to the Green Griffin. They wanted to go early to prep Ron before their friends arrived. When they arrived, they found Ron behind the counter of the coffee shop, pretending to wipe down the counter while he talked to a sandy haired man. Harry was pretty sure this was new friend Ron had mentioned. He was dressed oddly, like a wizard who was trying to dress like a muggle but just couldn't quite get it right, in plaid pajama pants and a bright yellow polo shirt.
"Hey guys!" said Ron as they walked up, pausing to give Hermione a quick hello kiss over the counter, "this is my new friend Ryan, the guy I was telling you about!"
"Nice to meet you," said Harry, reaching out his hand to shake Ryans.
"You, too, man! Ron here tells me you're an excellent seeker!" Ryan said with excitement, leaning in close so the muggles wouldn't hear. "You'll have to join us for our quidditch pick-up game sometime!"
Hermione let out an exasperated sigh. "You guys are unbelievable!" she commented.
Ryan looked between them, confused.
"Don't mind her," Harry said, "she's just upset because we're supposed to be keeping a low profile and pretend to be muggles. Ryan, are you from Seattle?"
"Yup! Just moved back. I graduated from Ilvermorny this past spring and I'm back living with my parents for a little while," he explained. "They actually run a quidditch supply shop here in Seattle! Have you guys ever played water quidditch? It's totally epic!"
Harry had never played water quiddich, but before he could answer Hermione cut in.
"You went to Ilvormorny?" she asked calmly. Although Harry could tell she was dying for more information. "You'll have to tell us all about it! I'm fascinated to learn about the different schools of magic" she squealed, her calm façade breaking.
"Oh Hermione," said Ron jokingly, "I thought we weren't supposed to be talking about magic?"
"I guess you're right. This will have to wait until later anyways, I see our friends from school coming in" "Hermione said. "Our muggle friends," she added, giving them all pointed looks as Jake and Renesseme walked up.
"Hey everyone!" said Nessie. "Hermione you look a little outnumbered at the moment!"
"Yeah, too many wands" joked Hermione. Nessie, Jake and Ryan laughed while Ron and Harry stared at her in shock. "Well let's get some coffees then!"
They passed the afternoon easily, talking and laughing and drinking too much coffee. Finally around 5:30 Jake announced he really had to leave to they could go home and start making dinner.
Ron had to work late, so they would meet him at home that night. As Harry and Hermione started to leave, Ryan grabbed Harry's arm. Harry whirled around defensively, automatically put on edge by being grabbed.
"You know your friends aren't no-maj, right?" Ryan said.
"What do you mean?" asked Harry, shifting uncomfortably, as he and Hermione had already been suspicious of this.
"I have a sense of magical detection," Ryan explained. "It's how I knew Ron was a wizard and I could talk to him freely. I can tell if someone is magical or has magic around them and your friends are definitely something with magic. They aren't a witch and a wizard, but beyond that I can't tell exactly what it is. It's subtle, but it's there."
Hermione looked shocked. "Thank you for telling us" she said after a minute. "We'll keep our eyes open." And with that, they headed home.