Disclaimer: I don't own any characters, things, or places you recognize from the Potter-verse.
CHAPTER TWO: Back at the Leaky Cauldron
After a quick breakfast they were on the road by eight. Harry noticed his uncle was glad for the absence of Harry's owl. He didn't care why she was gone as long as she was nowhere near him.
"How do you know it'll come back?" asked Dudley. Harry knew Dudley was being spiteful, not concerned.
"She is hunting."
"Well, er, how will it find you?"
"I told Hedwig where I'd be."
"Who's Hedwig?"
"My owl." No one ever listened to him. Dudley drank three sodas during the car ride. Harry sat imagining what he wouldn't give to be at Hogwarts watching the giant squid swim around the lake while he drank pumpkin juice, he wouldn't even mind being in class, just so long as he was away from the Dursleys. Suddenly the car stopped. They were on the right street. Uncle Vernon put Harry's trunk on a cart he had brought and the four of them walked down the road until Harry saw the Leaky Cauldron squashed between a bookshop and the record store. Aunt Petunia and Dudley had been planning to wait in the car while Uncle Vernon walked Harry in. But Dudley had to go to the bathroom. So in the end, three rather disgruntled looking Dursleys would be walking in with Harry.
"I don't see it," growled Uncle Vernon.
"It's invisible," said Harry.
Uncle Vernon clamped his hand over Harry's mouth as if afraid someone had heard. "Don't say that!" he whispered fiercely.
Harry led them through the doors.
Once inside, Harry told Dudley where the bathroom was then turned back to his aunt and uncle.
"Would either of you like anything to drink?"
"Most certainly not!" growled Uncle Vernon.
"Your loss," Harry replied as he turned around to go ask old Tom the toothless, old bartender for a soda. "Hi Tom. Can I have a—" but he was cut short.
"Surprise!" Ron and Hermione yelled. They had been at the counter waiting for him.
"Ron? Hermione? What are the two of you doing here? I thought we weren't meeting for another three days."
"We decided you couldn't spend the rest of the summer alone," answered Hermione.
"Yeah! We're staying here, too. On the seventh we'll all go back to my house," Ron said. "So what's with the Muggles? What are they doing here?"
Harry explained.
"Want something to drink, Harry?"
"Why not? Let's go see how the Dursleys are handling this." All three of them laughing went back to the Dursleys, who looked as though they were rooted to the spot by Devil's Snare and petrified by a basilisk.
"Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, I'm staying here for a few nights then I'm going back to Ron's house for the rest of the summer. You remember Ron, right? Are you sure you don't want anything to drink?" He smiled innocently. Harry loved watching the Dursleys squirm, and mentioning Ron—even though he was standing right there—had made them even more nervous.
"I'll take tea, but you must taste it in front of me to prove there's nothing funny about it," answered Aunt Petunia shortly. Harry went to get the tea and he could hear them talking still.
Hermione was making a polite attempt at conversation bringing up a few things of general world news.
"Since when do wizards care about any of that?" intoned Uncle Vernon as Harry came back.
"Oh, Uncle Vernon, Hermione is a Muggle-born witch like my mom." Harry took a sip of tea and passed it to his aunt. With all the other wizards and witches around there was no way Harry's aunt and uncle could get upset when he mentioned anything magical; it was an interesting change. Just then Dudley came out.
"Want any thing to drink Dudley?" as Ron asked this, he put on the wicked grin Fred and George –-his seventeen year old twin brothers— usually wore.
Uncle Vernon recognized the smirk and, looking terrified, said, "We have to leave. Now!" before Dudley could get a single word out. Aunt Petunia gave back the tea and all three Dursleys scuttled out there rather quickly. Uncle Vernon threw one quick look over his shoulder with panic written on his face.
"I'm glad he remembers me!" said Ron
By now they were both howling with laughter. It took five minutes for them to calm down enough to explain to Hermione what was so funny. The summer before, Ron's family had taken Hermione and Harry to the Quidditch World Cup Match. When Mr. Weasley, Fred, George, and Ron came to pick Harry up they blasted open the living room wall, then Fred "accidentally" dropped some Ton-Tongue-Toffees he and George invented. Dudley ate one and his tongue was for feet long before Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon let Ron's dad shrink it. Hermione was at the Weasleys' house when they got there but she had come in the room after.
After the story was over and they were all done laughing again it was Harry's turn to ask the questions; after he got something to drink, he wouldn't drink the tea because tealeaves seemed to predict his death all too often and he didn't feel like even knowing there were leaves there. "Ron how did you know I would be here?"
"Hermione told me."
"How? You don't have a phone and she doesn't have an owl."
"It was Hedwig."
"Hermione, what does Hedwig have to do with anything? She went flying outside after I got Ron's letter. I figured she deserved a break after going to Bulgaria then coming all the way back home and then to Ron's."
"Who did you write to in Bulgaria?" inquired Ron.
"The girl sitting next to you, Ron."
"Why was Hermione in Bulgaria?" Then the recognition showed on Ron's face. "Hermione was visiting Krum."
Harry noticed Hermione's face was going as red as Ron's hair so he hastily changed the subject. "Why did Hedwig fly to you?"
"I'm not sure. Yesterday, after I talked to you I saw Hedwig. I called her down, and gave her a snack and drink while I wrote a letter to Ron. Then she took the letter for me."
"Why didn't you tell me you were in Bulgaria, Hermione?" asked Ron. Ron sounded slightly hurt but it was hard for Harry to tell whether or not he was joking.
An awkward silence was starting. "Er, Ron, Hermione why don't we see about some rooms?"
"We already did. Ron's in three, I'm in four, and you have got five. But you should put go put your trunk in your room. Hedwig is waiting."
"I'll help you, Harry."
Together Harry and Ron carried Harry's trunk up the wooden staircase to room five. As soon as Harry and Ron had set down the trunk they sat on the end of Harry's bed and Hedwig fluttered to Harry's knee.
"Are you done with all your homework yet, Harry?"
"Nope, I've still got to do our History of Magic paper."
"I still have Snape's essay."
"Ouch. We'll do them tomorrow."
"Don't tell Hermione or she'll scold us for not having been done a week ago. Let's go ask if she wants to come walk around Diagon Alley with us."
"Sure." Harry put down Hedwig and followed Ron down the stairs. Harry, Ron and Hermione went to the back yard behind the Leaky Cauldron. It was nothing but a dingy alley with a trashcan and a few weeds. But as Hermione tapped the right brick with her wand, a hole opened in the wall and they entered Diagon Alley. It closed directly behind them. Their first stop was Quality Quidditch Supplies. Harry grinned when he saw that they hadn't made a broomstick that could out fly his Firebolt yet. Sirius bought it for him in his third year; the Whomping Willow had smashed Harry's Nimbus 2000. While they were in Quality Quidditch Supplies they saw Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas. They were two of the boys Harry and Ron shared their dormitory with. Dean told them, "Neville is here too but if you see him, watch what you say. Trevor is sick and he's real worried."
"How awful! What happened?" Hermione asked. Neville Longbottom was the other boy that shared the Harry and Ron's dormitory. He was more forgetful than anyone else Harry knew and was extremely tearful. He was also quite accident-prone. He had been given Trevor the toad by his Great-Uncle Algie when he was accepted to Hogwarts. Trevor meant a lot to him.
"I think the poor thing drank a messed up potion. I've have to go now, bye," answered Seamus.
"See you!" called Dean Thomas.
"That reminds me. I've got to go to the Magical Menagerie, come on," Hermione said.
"Why? Isn't your cat okay?"
"Ron, you know his name is Crookshanks, and yes he's all right. But I need an owl; I've got some birthday money to buy it with. I can't just hope Hedwig shows up whenever I need to send a letter. You have Pigwidgeon and Harry has Hedwig, I have Crookshanks but a cat doesn't deliver mail. At school I can use the school owls but not over the summer," Hermione told Ron and Harry in an irritated tone.
"Why don't you pick out your owl tonight and we can pick it up when we get our school stuff."
"No, I'll pick my owl out today, but I'll pick him or her up tomorrow. Maybe the day after, but I won't wait until the day we get our school stuff, we'll all be really busy." So they both followed her to the Magical Menagerie. Hermione picked out a screech owl, which—after much debate—she named Merlin Janus
They spent the rest of the afternoon looking at the shops. Eventually they got hungry, and went back to the Leaky Cauldron. The food was good and they were up talking late into the night.
"I wonder who the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher will be."
"They don't seem to last very long, do they?" Ron replied.
"Nobody even last a whole year. Quirrell was killed—"
"Lockhart lost his memory—"
"Lupin resigned when everyone found out he was a werewolf—"
"And Moody was replaced by someone trying to kill me," Harry finished.
"The three of us really shouldn't have to take that class, we've had plenty of practice. I bet the three of us would be perfect to teach it."
"You're probably right, Ron, but we should be going to bed now. Its late," Hermione finished in a yawn.