Chapter 19: Welcome to Romania, Crăciun Fericit
The next day made sure that all preparations were made, all schedules and contacts re-checked, and everything ready to go the next morning, since they were finally going to meet Moony face to face. It was a sense of trepidation on Harry's part that led to explainable jitters that Dudley picked up on almost immediately after seeing Harry at breakfast. Both of the parents, on the other hand, looked nervous, but only because this would be, apparently, one of the first people from the wizarding world that knew Petunia from before what Vernon called "The Big Change" and what a change it was. Even he could admit that she was an almost completely different person from before Dumbledore and McGonagall stepped through the doorway for that first time. It was like a child that grew up petulant, but learned how immature they were acting and changed into a better person. It also made him change to a better person, he realized, especially after his most recent promotion. His coworkers still mentioned that Vernon seemed more like a blustering bully at work before then, and some of them joked that they would have quit had he gotten the promotion and still acted that way. Years passed since then, and even reflecting now, he could see his family was happier than it could have been without the big change.
"Harry, we leave in an hour, so make sure that everything is ready" Petunia interrupted his train of thought.
"It's all been ready since yesterday"
"And checked, double-checked, and checked again" finished Dudley.
"Well, just making sure."
That hour passed by in what seemed like an instant, and they were now heading out the door. They wouldn't be taking their regular mode of transportation, as it would be looked after by a friend of Vernon's from work until they returned after the new year. A sudden shout of "Glory to the Red Army" made Vernon chuckle to himself as they made their way to the doorway to The Leaky Cauldron.
Vernon could even now see the haggard-looking man sitting at a table by himself, checking the area for signs of Harry, and even though he looked like he had been through the ringer a few times, Vernon could tell that this was a genuine nice-guy. Whatever illness this man was supposedly affected with, it didn't seem like it made him dangerous.
As Harry stepped through, Remus smiled and greeted Harry with all the emotions playing out on the man's face. Excitement, joy, sorry, misery, and hope, or something like it, flashed by in an instant.
"Harry, I haven't seen you since you were barely a month old. It's nice to see that you're growing up."
"Aye, and it's a good thing that he didn't grow up to be a hooligan like his father."
At first, Petunia's words seemed to make the wrong impression on the man, as the smile disappeared for an instant, but returning once he saw that she was joking.
"That's something I never thought I'd ever see, or hear. Lily's sister making a joke. The world has turned itself around."
"Mr. Lupin," Vernon spoke up, "This is my family, Dudley, Petunia, and Harry. I see you've met or remembered Petunia."
"That I do, and did. I was actually at your wedding, but didn't make a fool of myself like two other particular people" Smirked Remus.
"Who shall remain nameless." Petunia seemed to remember exactly who this man was, and it was Vernon's next mission to find out what she knew of him. But that was for another time. For now, it was time to let Harry interact with Remus without smothering him. "Petunia, Dudley, and I will be over here while you two catch up.
At the same time, two voices spoke up.
"It's alright Vernon, Dudley can stay if he wants."
"Don't feel like an intrusion."
Harry and Remus looked at each other before wearing matching smirks.
Harry, however, made the decision which Remus seemed to agree with. "It's alright. We can talk as a family now, and we can catch up later, if Moony wants to. He'll be meeting a lot of people on this trip, but not for another 2 days or so."
"Which reminds me" Remus said, primarily to Harry. "You mentioned that the trip was to Romania, but only mentioned the Weasley family, which I am already familiar with. Who else am I going to be meeting?"
"Well, we kind of have this group at school" Dudley got the go ahead from Harry the day before to mention everyone else, and about the group.
"Like our group? The Maruaders?"
"Kind of, but less pranking. More social." Harry answered.
"We do things together, tease each other, and everyone helps everyone with whatever they need help with. I'm not all that good at herbology, so our friend, Neville Longbottom, helps everyone with that class. There are even Slytherins in the group."
"I know of the Longbottoms. I met the grandmother of Neville, and went to school with his parents, but a they were a few years older than me. She's still..."
"Intimidating? Yes. Very."
"And daunting" Harry added.
"By the way, I haven't ever heard Neville talk about his parents, have you heard anything Harry? Remus?"
Harry answered with a negative, but Remus simply said "It would be up to Neville to tell you. It's his family, so I won't disrespect his right of privacy."
"Well, other than them, there is one other family that lives a few blocks away from us. We grew up together, and, well, he's muggleborn, and didn't imagine he would have ever been a wizard."
"His name is Piers Polkiss, and he's got a sister that we think is also going to be going to Hogwarts, but not for another year or so. She's 2 years younger, but Piers was a 'late bloomer' so she might not get a letter at all."
"And she used to have a crush on Dudley here."
"That ended a long time ago!"
At that, everyone laughed at the running joke. After telling Remus about Hermione, Daphne, Tracy, and John, Harry reminded Remus that the rest of the group would be going on this trip, and would meet them later on. Then there was that always-present sense of awkwardness, which didn't want to go away. It was then decided to go to Gringotts to withdraw the funds for this trip.
As they were heading down the Alley, Remus chatted idly with Harry and the rest of the family, and started opening up about their own Hogwarts experiences in the 70's. It seemed to Harry that it was a different atmosphere back then, and was confirmed by Remus, who then told them of the effects of the Blood War on most of Hogwarts. It was a tenuous time, with families losing members almost every day, and the time spent outside of a classroom was never a stress-free environment. There was always something that was happening, and the Maruders felt it was their responsibility to lighten the mood, more often than not. However, it was one name that kept popping up in the Journal that got Harry to ask his first serious question.
"Who was Snivellous?"
"Where did you hear that name?"
"It was in something that was left to me, I got it from the Goblins because it was left in my trust vault, and they let me keep it."
"The goblins must really like you Harry. They almost never bend the rules for anyone, even those that have earned their respect." A stare, then, "Snivellous was the nickname of someone that was usually targeted by the Marauders for some of the pranks we pulled."
"I thought so, because he was mentioned a lot in the Journal."
"James left you the Journal? I thought it was lost. To answer your question though, yes, we targeted him a lot, and we all had our different reasons, well, excuses, for targeting him."
"So, was it like, I don't know, justified, or was it just bullying?"
"It was mainly James and Sirius that targeted him, and yes, it was more similar to bullying, even though there was a few times that, although we crossed the line, it was undeniably justified. The person, I won't tell you who it was, did some really mean things to people, and acted more like a bully himself sometimes. I won't lie to you, until about 5th year, we were all bullies. After 5th year, some of us matured, and some of us didn't."
"Okay, well..." Harry looked a little ashamed, and Remus couldn't help but feel the same shame. "I'm glad you were honest with me. I can understand some teasing, but being a bully is not something that I agree with. Even if it is somewhat justifiable. And from what I read, that line was crossed a little too often to think that my dad wasn't a little bit of a bully. I know that no one is perfect, but from how I hear people talk about him, they make it seem like he was always a role model, or as near to perfect as you could get."
"The truth is that we were all immature, with the threat of the war hitting everyone's family hard. Well, except for the darker families. And it definitely took its' toll. But after maturing, everyone grew up and tried to make up for their childhood mistakes by being as honorable person as they could, especially James."
Petunia took this time to speak her mind, saying to Remus "Lily would not have been a Potter otherwise." Remus smiled, and she cut off the rest of the conversation, now that they were all at the doors of Gringotts.
One wild cart ride down, then up again, later, and Harry had a sack full of gold coins to sponsor this trip. It wasn't demanded of him, nor expected, but the young man offered and wouldn't take no for an answer when both Petunia and Vernon said they could pay for the family. According to Harry, his account would barely be dented from this trip, let alone the 'real vault' that he would gain access to once 17. Now it was time to meet up with the Polkiss family, who should be at Madam Malkin's by now.
Stepping into the robe shop, Piers was just finishing up with buying a few winter sets that would make sure there would be no chance of being frozen or having frostbite, with his family sitting on the benches just outside. Meeting Remus, and getting a brief story about swimming in creeks as children, everyone turned to head back down the alley and through the passageway to the muggle world once again.
Remus, however, asked everyone if they minded bumpy rides, to which everyone except Petunia said no to, and showed the families the way to use something called the "Knight Bus." He stood just by the street, raised his wand, and with a very loud bang, a purple double-decker bus appeared out of nowhere.
"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for stranded witches and wizards, I am -"
"Stan, so good to see you once again!"
"Hey Remus, how have you been! What's it been, like 3 years?"
"Indeed it has been. I see you got a job at least, even though I know you wanted to follow up with your family's business."
"Well, you know old Snape, never changes. 'Must obtain an outstanding for my NEWT-Level Class'." Even to Harry, who never really payed attention to Professor Snape if he could help it, the imitation was spot-on. Piers actually laughed at the imitation. Dudley was smiling, and Petunia had a shocked look on her face. Something seemed off about that, but Harry chalked that up to seeing a bus appear out of nowhere.
"Well, we need to get to the Ministry. How much will that be for, let's see...nine people?"
"That'll be 1 Galleon, 14 sickles, and 2 Knuts."
Harry stepped forward before Remus could pull out the required payment and handed Stan 2 Galleons. "Keep the change."
At Stan's nod, everyone loaded themselves onto the bus, where Remus simply said, "Grab onto something."
Another bang, and everyone was now holding on for dear life. Harry and Dudley were looking out the front windshield of the bus in amazement as everything in the way jumped out of the way for the bus. Trains, people, buildings, everything reminded him of that video that Dudley spent 3 hours trying to forget from 2 years ago where a new underwater camera called a "Fish-eye lens" was showcased. Harry didn't see the use of a camera like that, but at least it isn't the first time seeing that effect.
Even to his intellect, there was no way that they just traveled almost 40 kilometres to central London in less than twenty seconds, yet here they were, stopped on the side of the main street of an unfamiliar building. Dudley could be heard telling Piers that the building they stopped at looked like it needed to be demolished, to which Moony replied that it looked that way on purpose.
For everyone except for Remus, it was the first time visiting the Ministry, but this was definitely not what they were expecting. Remus then explained that it was a disguise, that the actual Ministry building was all underground, and that typing out the digits for "M-A-G-I-C" on the dial would reveal the entrance to the Ministry. The voice asked their business, to which Remus simply stated "Potter group, visiting the International Portkey Office," followed by nine badges saying "Potter group - IPO" slid out from the change slot.
Now, to Harry, Dudley, and Piers, the Ministry itself seemed like improperly contained chaos, while the adults all seemed unfazed but such confusion. Moony led them to the International Portkey Office, picked up a rubber duck from the clerk at the window, and led them to a seperate room that had nothing inside besides themselves and the Rubber Duck.
"We just throw the Duck away when we get to Romania in a bin. It's a regular rubber duck, but is enchanted to be a portkey for just this one use. I will hold onto our return ticket so that the Romanian Ministry can give us the return portkey when we leave" Remus explained to everyone.
Harry still looked a little confused, but heeded Remus's instructions to place a finger on the duck. There was barely any room left to touch the duck, but just managed to get a finger on the bill when there was a knee-jerk sensation, followed by the most dizzying 45 seconds of Harry's life, ending with the wind being knocked out of him. Looking around, he was definitely not the only one. In fact, only Remus was still standing, pocketing the duck in the inner flap of his robes.
"Welcome to the Ministry of Magic in Romania."
Looking to the right, there was a man standing next to an exit door, motioning for them to exit the area as quickly as possible. Thanking the man as they all passed by him, they all got a nod in return. Lucky for them, it seemed like the Romanians had more sense than the British in designing where their portkey office was. As soon as they exited the room, they discovered that there was only two possible directions to go. Left to go to the transportation office, Right to head into the Ministry of Magic.
At the transportation office, the concierge gave the group the usual spiel about the local attractions and such, until Remus respectfully cut him off, saying they were already meeting with someone, and just needed to get transportation to a city called Gutthiuda, which was apparently the closest that they would get to a magical community that wasn't a "tourist attraction." It also apparently helped that it was only a few kilometres away from the reserve, but close enough to a few other places that Remus told everyone were "safe enough to not be in danger." After the confusing looks that he received at that statement, he clarified by saying "the Vampire clans avoid that area, as it is still too close to Castle Bran than they would like. As in Dracula's Castle. And yes, Dudley, we can see the castle; it's safe for everyone, even muggleborns. The curse that caused the whole Dracula thing does exist, but that area, and for 200 kilometres in any direction, is heavily guarded by both wizards and goblins. No one goes near that place. Ever.
Harry couldn't speak for everyone, but that seemed to set the mood for the next few days at least. He was now proving himself to deserve to be in Gryffindor for having the secret desire to see that cursed place for himself, even with the risk involved. And a Crăciun Fericit to you too.