Chapter 3
Alice gasped. "How do you know my name?"
Mrs. Brodie laughed. "Oh lass, you don't think you're the only wizard's child ever to get lost in London, do you?" She paused to give Ben another stern look. "Although I suppose you've done the right thing in not letting on who you were to strangers. A dangerous place for a young witch, Muggle London is. But this here is The Leaky Cauldron, and you'll never find a more welcoming place for our kind." She waved to Tom, who was watching from the bar. He smiled and went back to wiping some glasses dry.
"But who told you who I was? I've never met him-" Alice nodded to Tom, "before. I've never even been to London before today."
Ben was covering his surprise with sarcasm. "You're a witch?" He rolled his eyes and answered for his mother. "Well, Tom's had an owl, hasn't he? You don't think your parents would let you wander off without contacting the Ministry, do you? A witch lost in Muggle London, that's a matter of security. Just think of all the things that could go wrong!"
"He's right, my dear. A little lost witch could cause all sorts of mischief - without meaning to, of course." Mrs. Brodie smiled as Alice stared at her hands, misreading the child's embarrassment. "Besides, your parents would be terribly worried, wouldn't they? And want to find you as soon as possible?" Alice looked up and started to protest, but Mrs. Brodie continued, "Now then, I've taken the liberty of replying with the Ministry's owl, and your parents should be here soon, but until they do you're to stay right here with Ben and me."
"But I-"
"No, no, dear. It's all settled." She paused. "I'm just glad Ben met you before someone else did. You really can't trust non-magical people."
Ben slid down in his bench and became fascinated by his fingernails. Alice looked at him curiously before turning back to his mother. "Why not?" she asked, tentatively.
"Never you mind, now, lass. Just you mind me and stay away from them. Lord knows, I tried to teach my children..." Mrs. Brodie trailed off and refocused her attention on her son. "Sit up, Benjamin."
"Yes'm," he half-heartedly straightened a bit.
"Benjamin, what have I told you about sitting like that? You'll ruin your posture."
"Sorry, Mum."
"Really, after all the times I've spoken to you... why can't you be more like-"
"Like Michael, Mum?" he challenged.
"Benjamin!"
"Or did you mean like Brian?" His mother was shocked. "Or maybe you wish I was more like Moira!"
"Now really, Benjamin, that is enough!"
"Is it, Mum?" Alice thought his mother might explode. Apparently Ben was beginning to think so too. "Right, then, I reckon it is." He looked down again.
"Benjamin, you apologize to Alice now. I'll not have you being so disrespectful, and in public too! What must she think of your family now? I thought that after last year you had learned better than to-"
"It's all right, Mrs. Brodie," Alice interrupted.
"It is most certainly not all right! You children have no respect. Always talking back, and never listening, and running away from the ones that care about you!" Alice flushed. Ben looked mortified. "Don't you think for one second about what we go through?" She looked from one child to the other. Alice began to understand what Ben had done last year, and why Mrs. Brodie was so emphatic about returning her to her parents.
"I didn't run away, Mum," Ben said quietly to his folded hands. "I got lost."
"We are not getting into this here Benjamin. In front of our guest." Mrs. Brodie began to compose herself, smoothing her sandy hair and adjusting her skirt. There was a long, uncomfortable silence. Ben concentrated on removing some dirt from his fingernail, while Alice watched the boy at the next table ignite his napkin, still trying to change his poor frog.
"I'm sorry, Mum," Ben ventured after a few minutes.
His mother sighed. "For what Benjamin?"
"For whatever I did..."
"Child, never apologize if you don't know what you've done wrong." She looked at her watch and then at Alice. "Your parents should have been here by now. I think I'll just have a word with Tom..." She left the table again.
"So, then, that's what you meant when-"
"Yeah."
"Is she always like that?"
"Usually."
"But you didn't run away?"
"No."
Alice frowned and considered what she'd learned in the last few minutes, comparing the nice woman who'd bought her chips to the posture-obsessed mother who'd just left the table. "Why not?"
"What?"
"Why didn't you run away? I mean if she's always comparing you to your brothers..."
"Well, she's not always like that. And besides, she's right. My brothers and sister are much better students. Michael's a fifth year at Hogwarts, a prefect this year, for Hufflepuff. And what's more, he doesn't even have the sense to get a big head about it." Ben shook his head in wonder. "I don't think Moira's doing as well in her classes, but she's this fantastic artist and plays all sorts of instruments. She's on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, too. Even Brian gets better marks than I do, and he's only eight."
"I'm sure that you-"
"Oh, stop it. I'm just telling you so you'll understand. My mum's not all that bad. She just gets real excited sometimes. And I don't help things. When I got lost last year it scared her something awful. I didn't mean to, but you know... I'd never been to Muggle London before. There was this older boy on a bicycle... you've seen those, right?" he paused to consider how to explain them. "Big metal things with wheels... anyway, he said he'd show me how to ride it while my mum was shopping with my sister... So while they were in the store I got on the boy's bike, but I kept falling off and my knees were getting all scraped. So I guess the last time I fell I wished for a soft landing, cause this big fluffy pillow appeared under me."
"Wow! You conjured a pillow when you were nine?"
Ben pulled himself up proudly, "Yeah, I'm good at that stuff... can't really control it though."
"What did the boy do? I mean, he was a Muggle, wasn't he?"
"Yeah, he was. He wanted me to do it again. I tried to explain that I couldn't... I hadn't really been taught that stuff yet, just what I picked up from Mike and Moira...but he didn't get it. He started yelling at me, trying to scare me into doing it, I guess."
"Were you terribly frightened?"
"Nah"
Alice waited.
"Well, ok, maybe a little. He was a lot bigger than me."
"What did he do?"
"Well, after a bit he left off yelling at me. I reckon he was afraid my mum might hear. He said he was sorry and he'd give me ride if I wanted. I could sit on the handlebars and that way he'd keep the bike from tipping."
"And you went with him?" Alice asked, incredulously.
"Well, yeah," Ben looked down sheepishly. "I just thought it'd be wicked, you know? Riding one of those? I don't even have my own broom..."
Alice rolled her eyes. She would never understand boys' obsessions with broomsticks.
"So, I said, 'Alright then, let's have a go at it,'" Ben continued. "Next thing I know I'm in his mum's apartment and she's asking me lots of questions about my family and our "special talents," and asking me if I ever met anyone from outer space."
Alice laughed.
"Yeah," Ben grinned, "a bit of a nut job that one. She kept throwing things at me to see if they'd turn into pillows or just hit me."
"Did they?" Alice gasped.
"Nah. I ducked."
"Good idea," she giggled.
"Yeah, but after a while it wasn't so much fun anymore."
"How did you get out of there?"
"Same way your mum and dad found you. My mum reported me to the Ministry as soon as she came out of the store and I wasn't there. Boy, was she ever sore when I got home. Mike told me she'd been imagining all sorts of horrible things. I guess she was pretty worried. That's why she gets so excited about kids wandering off and not paying attention around Muggles. Doesn't trust 'em."
Alice wondered what Mrs. Brodie would think if she knew how close she really was to having a Muggle in The Leaky Cauldron. After all, a squib wasn't that much different, was it? She tried to work out how quickly Mrs. Brodie would catch her if she just took off like she had at the train station. "Ben, I have to... ummm... I've got to..." Eyeing Ben's mother warily, she scooted toward the edge of the bench. As if on cue, Mrs. Brodie turned away from the bar and started back to the table. "Alice," she called, "I don't know what's keeping-"
"Mrs. Brodie, I have to... to go to the loo." By the end of her sentence she was off the bench and halfway to the door.
"Alice? It's over there, honey."
Alice ignored her and walked faster. She was almost to the door.
"Oi, hang on!" Ben was following her again.
As Alice reached for the door it seemed to swing open on its own. For a moment she thought her desire to leave had been strong enough... But the door didn't open on its own. Someone pushed it open from the outside. Two someones in fact. Two very angry someones who now stood directly in front of the ten year olds and glared down at them.
"Mum! Dad!"