Disclaimer: (Dances around Harry Potter tied up in a chair) I own Harry Potter! I own Harry Potter! I own – (Man in black suit comes in and takes Harry Potter in a chair away) Aww! But I got him that time! I guess I don't own Harry Potter now… (sulks)
A Life Alone
Chapter Forty-Three
By Loony
After Jacques's visit, escaping the Forbidden Forest was relatively simple. First, Harry had to convince Nymph that he was just musing to himself, not going insane. If he told her what he had really seen – and been conversing with – she would not understand. How could she? He would be sceptical himself if he learnt that it were she that saw centaur's who were not there and heard people who did not exist. Harry was sure they were real though; his arm was proof of that. Jacques must have had some charm or something on to prevent anyone from Harry knowing he was there. Yes, that had to be it, didn't it?
Another thing of which Harry was sure, was that there had to be a reason that he was not crazy. Despite what he must have appeared to Nymph, he wasn't. There had to be a reason Jacques talked to him and him only; he just didn't know what it was.
Thankfully, they met no more Hippogriffs or anything terribly dangerous. Though, they did encounter a vicious group of what looked like wooden pixies that were living in a tree and were most… displeased to be disturbed, some suspicious looking fungi and the corpse of a fearsome looking beast. The only thing remotely frightening about the corpse was the thought of what had been able to kill it. Nevertheless, Harry and Nymph made it through the forest and to the village of Hogsmeade with no more than a few small scratches and bite marks.
It was the next day by the time they arrived at Hogsmeade (the route they took through the forest had a few… detours). Nymph planned to borrow – well, steal – some floo powder out of the Three Broomsticks, which was a nearby pub, and floo to London where they were both familiar with their surroundings. Five minutes upon entering the town, however, Nymph dragged Harry into a back alley, looking worried.
"There's wizards scoutin' the place for you, but I think they're thick as slugs since they've not snatched you yet," she said in a hushed tone at his questioning look. "Dumbledore must've sent 'em out tae look for you. Shut up a mo and let me speak." She had seen him open his mouth to comment. Harry closed it with a snap. "The pub's right round the corner so just be real inconspicuous and we'll be fine."
It was not even worth the effort to wonder how Nymph knew the meaning of inconspicuous. It seemed rather pointless, too, that she had dragged him into a shadowy alley if she wanted to remain so. If there was anything less inconspicuous than two figures whispering quietly in a dark corner, it did not come to mind.
Even so, they exited the alley through the way they had entered. Now that he knew to look for them, Harry could see wizards and witches dotted over the town attempting to look casual whilst leaning against walls. They were doing a pretty bad job of it. One wizard in particular was simply standing in the middle of the street inspecting passers-by. Harry wondered how he had not noticed these blatant watch guards before, especially since he used to be able to spot a much better hidden lookout with ease. He put it down to lack of practise.
As the pair rounded the corner, the Three Broomsticks came into view. It seemed they would make it after all, though how was a mystery. Surely one of the wizards must have noticed two less than clean children walking around with various stains and evidence of travelling through the forest? Apparently not and no one even commented as they entered the pub, which was half full. It took a few minutes for Harry to be able to see properly in the dimmer light but when he did he could see that the pub had a cosy atmosphere to it and the occupants were talking amiably, some intimately, others boisterously. Trying to look as though they were searching for a table to sit at, the pair drifted over to the fireplace which had a pot of sand-like substance atop of it.
Nymph took a handful of the sand and instructed Harry to the same. He complied and she whispered instructions on how to use this sand to travel through the fire, all the while eyes darting round the pub for any onlookers. Grinning that they were about to be free at last from the threat of capture, she stepped into the fireplace to go first and disappeared with a few words in a flash of green flames.
At the sound of the flames, the witch serving drinks looked over, anger clearly evident on her face. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded, depositing the tray that she had been holding on a nearby table and drawing her wand in an instant. "Get away from there!"
A wizard much closer to Harry at a table, got up and drew his wand also. Apparently this wizard thought he would assist the employee by attempting to stun him. Harry was not amused. To avoid the spell, he had to dive away from the fireplace and take cover behind a witch sitting drinking a tankard of some sweet substance. This violent action drew the attention of other customers and before he knew it, nearly every occupant in the room had their wands drawn and were firing spells at him. This commotion apparently alarmed passers-by outside and soon they too had entered the pub and were attempting to fire spells at Harry.
Staying still was not an option, he decided as he dove behind a chair only to be fired at from behind and forced to roll away. Now he was on the opposite end of the room from the fireplace though he was not entirely sure how he had gotten there. There was a steady stream of spells being directed at him now. Running and ducking simultaneously, Harry knocked over an elderly woman, taking her umbrella from her as he went. He yelped in pain when a stinging hex or something similar hit his ankle. Ignoring the pain, he opened the umbrella and used it as a make-shift shield to block the main body of curses. He was slightly closer to the fireplace now but he had dropped the floor powder in his second dive.
Harry vaulted over the bar, discarding the smoking frame of the umbrella as he went, and heard glass smash overhead where he had been just a second before. Spells were sent flying at the bottles and glassware suspended above him as magical folk aimed aimlessly at where they thought he might reappear. The glass shattered and rained down upon him but Harry ignored it. He ran crouched out of view along the length of the bar and jumped over the top of it at the end, swiftly upturning a table as he landed to block the jelly-legs curse that followed him. He ducked the curse that attacked him from the other side and propelled himself into its caster. Snatching the wand that rolled away, he fired random bursts of magic in all directions as he twisted out the way of a yellow spell. The wand omitted violent beams of fire instead of the stunning spell Harry had intended. That's what he got for attempting to use another's wand.
Harry jumped onto a table, flinging the tray he had picked up at an unsuspecting witch. He hopped over a multitude of spells that shot towards his feet and flung himself upon a wizard, not once breaking stride. If he stayed still for even a second he knew he would be hit with more than the few stinging hexes and singeing curses that had found their home already.
The fireplace was only a few more yards away and the way was clear. He dove the last few paces, ending in a forwards roll. As he straightened, he jumped to avoid yet another spell and grabbed some more floo powder at the same time. Barely stopping the shout his destination, he flung himself into the fireplace and ducked again.
As he ducked, the world began spinning around him in a whirl of green flames and fireplaces. He spluttered and coughed as he inhaled soot from the air and fell over when he tried to get to his feet. Harry continued to spin, limbs flailing all over the place and hitting fireplaces as they span by. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the world slowed its rotation and he half fell, half rolled, out of a fire place and landed at Nymph's feet.
"Took your time," she sniffed uninterestedly. "What were you doing, polishing the floors?"
From his position on the floor, Harry told her, breathing heavily, of what had happened. He stamped at some smoke that was rising from his trousers where a spell had hit him and blinked in surprise at Nymph who was looking most put out.
"How comes you always do all the fun stuffs without me? You could have called me back!"
Harry spluttered indignantly at her. Called her back? Called her back? Didn't she realise he had been a little preoccupied with not being turned into a crab? Honestly, he couldn't really be expected to call her back when he was in the midst of a single sided battle. "Tae be honest, makin' sure you got tae have a bit of fun wasn't top of my priorities list."
"Well next time, make it! I won't have you gettin' to do all the fun stuffs without me this year at Hogwarts. So how much fun did you have without me last year?" She plopped herself down onto the dusty wooden floor beside Harry who still had not moved since he had tumbled out of the fireplace.
He thought about all he had done in his time at Hogwarts. He had given Ron the concussion, broken Malfoy's nose, knocked someone off their broom to escape from the crazy Bludger, saved Hermione from the troll, there was that incident with the Weasley twins and he had attempted to steal the Philosopher's Stone. "Not much," he muttered. Harry turned to look at the room. It was bare except for the fireplace and the whole room was covered in a thick layer of dust that was only disturbed by a set of footprints that looked suspiciously like Nymph's. "Where are we?"
She brightened at this and smiled proudly. "This is a wizarding home that was abandoned at Christmas. Dunno why but it's pretty damn helpful when you want to get around by floo." They lapsed into silence for a few minutes, each mind wandering aimlessly.
"So where we off tae? We can't stay 'round here all summer," Harry asked, breaking the silence. Truth be told, he didn't even know where "here" was other than it was in London.
The girl beside him gave a feral grin. "Want to play dares?"
Harry frowned at her. Dares? She wanted to play dares all summer? Sure, the game had been fun when they were bored but the game soon became dull as the creative dares were used up. It grew old very quickly when every second dare was one that had already been performed by someone else. His scepticism must have shown on his face as Nymph quickly explained, the feral grin remaining in place.
"Dares in Diagon Alley. With wizards in play it's so much more fun!"
Now Harry just gaped at her. Wizards could use spells which were much harder to avoid than the occasional – well more than occasional – angry pedestrian. "Erm, maybe later in the summer when thing's have died down a bit, eh?" Hopefully by that time she would have forgotten about the idea.
"I'll hold you to that, 'arry." Nymph cocked her head in thought. "How 'bout we meet up with some of the old gang? I know there's more than one person who wants to go a round with you. There were a lot of really disappointed people when you left, you know."
By "go a round" Nymph meant there were more than a few people who were eager to have a friendly fight with Harry. With no money to buy amusements with, the common form of such was to have fights which were entertaining for not only the participants but the spectators as well. Before the whole fiasco with Snape, Harry had been exceptionally good at fighting for his size. He was fairly convinced his magic helped him see punches and attacks coming and helped his reaction speeds, though he had never voiced this theory. Now, however, he was severely out of practise and was most likely not on top form.
"I dunno, Nymph," he said, uncertainly. "I've not had a decent fight in forever; I'm probably as bad as when I first got into a fight again."
The feral grin was back on her face. Harry wondered briefly if she actually had any other smile. "Then you'd better start practising again! Practise makes perfect, after all."
He grinned cheekily at her. "But nobody's perfect, so why bother?"
To Harry's surprise, she seemed highly affronted by this. "How!" she exclaimed, in an offended tone. "I'm perfect!"
Snorting in amusement, he replied condescendingly, "Of course you are."
After half an hour of arguing, Nymph managed to bully Harry into agreeing to a couple of fights with those he had been friends with before. Amazingly, despite his absence, he was still talked about, mostly because of his "invincible" fighting skills. This made Harry all the more nervous. He really was incredibly out of practise. Hogwarts hadn't provided the same kind of practise that had occurred every day while Harry had been living on the streets.
When the duo had arrived at the home of the gang that Nymph had been a part of, they had been greeted with surprised yelps and shouts. The place was unfamiliar to Harry but as he had suspected, the gang had moved in the year he had been away. It also appeared that Nymph had been missing from the gang for numerous months and it had been feared that she had been caught by the police. She remained as tight-lipped about her disappearance as Harry was about his. Later when they were alone, she still refused to answer where she had been.
Nymph had, it transpired, understated the amount of people who wanted to fight Harry, just to see if they could win. To Harry it seemed like nearly every person present wanted to fight him, including some he had never met. In the end, he ended up obliging everyone. As soon as he finished one fight, Nymph would badger him until he agreed to someone else.
Overall, he didn't do too badly. He didn't lose, which was surprising and comforting at the same time. It meant he wasn't completely defenceless, even without his wand. Knives were not used nor any weapon that would seriously injure someone such as a gun. The occasional wooden bat or similar instrument was used though. Harry managed to pin everyone who fought him into submission, escaping with only a bleeding lip and nose, multiple bruises and cuts and a black eye.
That night was spent laughing and drinking with old friends and swapping absurd tales of events that had transpired over the last year. Harry mainly listened to these tales, not have many ones that were suitable to tell, as did Nymph. Nymph's silence was strange. Where had she been? What had she been doing? Harry was determined to find out and when he was determined to do something, it usually got done.
It was an extremely enjoyable affair. There was no worry here, no constant threat. Of course, there was always the underlying thought of the police finding them but it was obviously far from most people's minds. The atmosphere was relaxed and carefree, something Harry had not experienced in those he actually liked in a long time. That was the way he liked it and he wished it could stay that way.
But he had to go back. Harry knew he did; there was no avoiding it. Just by being there he was probably endangering them. He would not do that to them, not when they were so content living peacefully – if you could call it that.
His mind kept wandering to what would happen at the end of the summer. What would Dumbledore think when he saw him return with Nymph? He might demand an explanation to where he'd been and to who Nymph was. Harry didn't have any idea what he would tell him. He would lie, most likely, but he had yet to come up with a good story that might sound even somewhat plausible. He could refuse to answer at all though Dumbledore would probably continue to pester him until he said something.
What house would Nymph be sorted into? She was brave, no doubt about that, but she was also plenty cunning when she wanted to be. She had never struck Harry as a particularly hard-working or patient, so Hufflepuff was an unlikely choice. Ravenclaw seemed improbable, too. Nymph was not really the sort for learning. That meant it was most-likely a choice between Gryffindor and Slytherin but Harry could not decide on which suited Nymph better.
What would the year have in store for them? Harry doubted that it could possibly be as eventful as his first year but he also doubted that he would ever be left alone completely by the ever so twitchy student body. Nymph would probably ignore any attempts he made to allow her to be seen as an average student. She tended to alter any such opinions by simply being her. She would disregard his advice about staying away from him to protect herself from Dumbledore too, not that he wouldn't still give it. Hogwarts didn't strike Harry as a particularly uneventful place. No, this year was probably going to be just as eventful as the previous.
xXxXxX
AN: A couple of people expressed concerns about the accents
that I shared so I've toned down the accents a lot. Sorry to all of you
who liked them.
Wow, twenty-one reviews for last chapter! Quite a contrast to the previous four! I'm not sure exactly what I said that made y'all review, but I appreciate them all a TONNE. Really, I'm a review monger and I love them!
I've a strange request, but here it is. Can you please make a list of the strange unanswered questions that this story has raised? For example, "Who's Sir?" and "Who or what was Jacques?". Not that I'm going to be answering them next chapter, far from it, but when the time comes I don't want to leave any out. Or any that I should have already answered :P Thanks for reading, Loonz.
