Chapter 5: England, Finally
"Harry, move! We're late!" screamed Petunia.
"And whose fault is that?" thought Harry. Petunia had insisted that she inspect the house one last time before they left for the airport, but then decided that the guest bedroom needed to be vacuumed once more. So it had been done as quick as possible, but they were still 15 minutes behind schedule.
Harry ran down the stairs and flew out of the front door to the driveway, where Uncle Vernon was waiting impatiently in the car.
"Where the devil were you?" screamed Vernon.
"Last minute cleaning," replied Harry.
"A likely excuse," said Vernon. Petunia had just ran out of the house and hopped in the front seat.
"Let's move dear, we're late," she said. They were leaving Harry with Mrs. Figg while they picked up Dudley, so they dropped him off and sped away.
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"We will be landing momentarily, thank you for flying English Air. We hope you'll fly with us again," said the flight attendant over the intercom.
Lindsey was in her glory, as she looked out over the English countryside below her. It was just as great as she remembered. And the thought of possibly finding her real mom was lurking in her head the entire time. Dudley was asleep next to her. She saw the control tower of the airport and decided to wake him up.
"Dudley!" She said loudly, smacking him in the arm. He grunted and turned to face the other way. "Fine, have it your way." And she began to shake him violently.
"What? What? I'm up!" he cried
"We're about to land, better pack up your things."
"I would have woken myself up, you didn't have to give me whiplash."
"Oh, I'm oh-so-very sorry."
"I cannot wait to see my parents and get out of your company."
"Yeah, I bet. But you might want to wipe the drool away from your chin before we go see them." He glared at her and wiped it away. Then he subtly made a very rude gesture, which Lindsey was getting quite used to.
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Harry wasn't exactly thrilled to be staying at Mrs. Figg's house, seeing as the last time he went, she made him organize her cat photo albums. That was last summer though, and he hoped that she had something a little more interesting this time. He walked up to the front door and rang the bell. He heard a small yell from inside, and then a lot of moving around. When Mrs. Figg finally got to the door a minute or so later, she looked very disheveled.
"Harry, I completely forgot about you staying here today," she said nervously. Harry just stood there. "Well let's get you inside."
Harry walked in and looked around. The usually neat house was very messy. Books were everywhere and the tabby cat that was usually sitting on the recliner was nowhere to be seen.
"I know it's a bit messy, but I've been... well busy." She wandered over to the table with the books and closed them all, muttering some nonsense that Harry couldn't make out.
"Um, do you mind if I get a glass of water?" asked Harry.
"Oh, of course, cups are in the top left cabinet," she replied. Harry walked into the kitchen and grabbed a glass out of the cabinet
"So Mrs. Figg," he began, trying to be nice. "How have you been?"
"Well not so well, it's been a hard time for me, with all my..." She stopped suddenly, with a horrified look to a part of the house Harry couldn't see.
"Arabella, did you find that spell? I tried the books at my house, but it wasn't there." Harry nearly dropped his water. He knew that voice. He quickly ran back to where Mrs. Figg was.
"Lupin?" He cried.
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Dudley and Lindsey were making their way off the ramp and into the airport. Lindsey was following Dudley silently, praying that the people she was about to meet would be friendlier than their son.
"Dudleykins!!!"
Lindsey looked over in the direction of the shout, eyeing a thin woman with an unusually long neck. This must be his mom. Who else would use the term Dudleykins? Dudley rushed over to his mother and gave her a big hug. Then he hugged another man, a large man who looked very similar to his son. Lindsey assumed that this was his dad. She walked over.
"Mrs. Dursley?" she asked politely. Petunia nodded. "I'm Lindsey, it's a pleasure."
"Very nice to meet you," she said, faking a smile, which Lindsey chose to ignore
"Well," said Vernon, "Lets get your things and be off home."
They wandered to the luggage pick-up area, got their things, and made it back to the car. Lindsey quickly found herself liking Mrs. Dursley, and Mrs. Dursley, despite her son's opinion, liked Lindsey as well. They both shared a love of gossip and they were able to talk all the way home about the personal lives of the rich and famous. Vernon and Dudley both remained silent, both because they disliked Lindsey. Vernon disliked her because of a little conversation they had partway through the ride.
"So I hear that Dudley's cousin also lives with you," said Lindsey, "Where is he?"
"Not here," snapped Vernon. This was a touchy subject for him. "He is a very disagreeable boy."
"Oh, well I still would like to meet him. Does he go to school with Dudley?"
"No, he attends St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys." That shut Lindsey up on that subject. What did the kid do to be sent to a criminal school? She didn't want to know.
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"What is going on?" Asked Harry, looking between Lupin and Mrs. Figg suspiciously. They looked at each other and Arabella nodded with a sigh.
"Well Harry," Began Lupin, "This is Arabella Figg. She was recruited by Dumbledore 13 years ago to keep an eye on you. For your own safety you know."
"Wait," said Harry, "You were a witch the entire time? How did I never find out?"
"Squib dear. I can't do a bit of magic. And you would have figured it out if you had been a bit more observant. When you just came in, I had The Huge Book of Hexes wide open on my coffee table. Even I thought that you'd catch on to that one," she said.
"Now Harry, we have work to do, so you can help or you can... I don't know, watch... that," said Lupin, with a confused look at the television.
"I think I'd rather help. What do I need to do?" Arabella smiled. Lupin also looked pleased.
"I'll be back," said Arabella and she went upstairs. Harry and Lupin sat around the kitchen table.
"So how is Sirius?" asked Harry.
"He is, well, not bad considering. I dare say that he is quite anxious to have you visit." Harry smiled as the memory of the letter came back. Lupin noticed this smile. "Yes, I'm sure that Dumbledore will let you come stay with us before long."
"Well at least I'll have something to look forward to," said Harry, a bit upset that he wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. Then they heard a huge crash and spun around to see that Arabella had dropped a large pile of books and they were all now falling down the stairs. "What are all those for?"
"We have to go through them," said Arabella, sighing at the task.
"We need to find a spell. It's called the Locatoris Spell. It helps find any person to the exact square mile," explained Lupin.
"Who are we looking for?" Asked Harry.
"It's not really important," said Arabella.
"Wait, so if you're a squib, how come you have so many wizarding books?"
"Well I consider my home the library of the Order." Lupin coughed and gave Arabella a not-so-subtle glare.
"The Order?"
"No matter, said Lupin, levitating a book and dropping it in front of Harry. "Get to work."
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"Is this your house?" asked Lindsey, looking out the window of the car. They were pulling into a driveway.
"No." Said Petunia. "We need to pick up Dudder's cousin." Lindsey sat back in her seat. The kid attends a frickin' school for criminals. As Vernon strode up to the front door, Lindsey couldn't help but picture the kid she was about to meet. Tall, strong, tattoos, and assorted pierced body parts. But when the kid finally walked outside, she learned that she was totally wrong. He wasn't a big beefy kid. He was tall, yes, but skinny as anything. Lindsey noticed that his clothes were way too big and that he had his glasses taped. His hair was in a messy state and Lindsey, despite thinking that he was a criminal, felt a little guilty.
"Don't feel guilty!" She thought. "He's goes to a school for criminals! Be afraid of him."
Vernon and the cousin got to the car and piled in. Lindsey was unlucky enough to be sitting in the middle, and Dudley's excessive fat made it impossible for her to put distance between herself and the boy. They sat in uncomfortable silence while Vernon backed out. Then Petunia turned around and addressed him.
"You didn't cause Mrs. Figg and trouble, did you?"
"No, I never do." Petunia glared at him.
"Um, I don't mean to be, um, disrespectful or anything," I began, turning to the cousin, trying to be polite. "But, I, um, well, I never got your name."
"Harry," he said shortly. "And you are the American exchange student, right?"
"Yeah, Lindsey." He looked straight me in the eye and then quickly back out the window. His eyes were just like mine, bright green. And his hair was the same color as mine... we could have passed for twins.
The rest of the trip was silent, of course. It was maybe two minutes when we turned onto a little street, Privet Drive, according to the sign. Lindsey smiled as they drove down the street. Looking out the window on Harry's side, she saw two little girls playing hopscotch on the sidewalk and a boy of about 10 kicking around a soccer ball. It was all so... perfect, thought Lindsey with a smile, despite the fact that she was sitting between a convict and a fat jerk. Either way, she was there.
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"Albus we found it." Lupin had just apparated to the Order headquarters where Dumbledore was reading the latest issue of the Daily Prophet and munching on some candy.
"Wonderful, I knew Arabella's library would be useful," said Dumbledore, setting the paper down and popping a chocolate frog in his mouth.
"Of course, it always is. Harry found it you know." Dumbledore spit out the frog.
"Harry knows about Arabella?"
"Yes Albus. It was a complete accident, entirely my fault." He explained to him the events of the afternoon. "I know that this isn't exactly how we planned it, but we had to let him know eventually."
"Yes, that's true," said Dumbledore in a sad manner.
"Oh don't worry, He can handle it."
"Oh I know, but that's not it. Its just that, well I got myself again." He said with a look at his Chocolate Frog card.
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"And this is your room," said Dudley, not in the most positive manner, seeing as he had just shown her around the entire house. Lindsey found the place very nice. Everything was clean and welcoming. "Your bags are downstairs, bring them up and unpack or something."
"Can you help me with them?"
"No," he said, walking out
"Denied," thought Lindsey, jumping onto the bed. She looked around the room that would be her home for the next two weeks. "Not too shabby," she said aloud.
She got up and made her way down the stairs. She walked to the kitchen where her bags sat it a neat pile. She lifted them all up with difficulty and slowly made her way to the stairs.
At the stairs, she was faced with the task of getting the bags upstairs. She looked around to find help, but there was no one. She could hear the television on in the other room and guessed that none of the Dursley's would help her. So she maneuvered her way up, one stair at a time. About 10 minutes later, when she was halfway up, she heard laughing. She looked up and there was Harry at the top of the stairs.
"This isn't funny," Lindsey yelled. Harry stopped laughing right away.
"Oh god," thought Lindsey, "I made him mad, he's going to hurt me now."
"Sorry," he said, trying to keep a straight face, "but it really is." He burst out laughing again. Lindsey smiled cautiously. "Do you want me to help you?" he asked between laughs.
"Um, no, that's all right, I don't want to trouble you," said Lindsey weakly. He gave her an odd look, walked down the stairs, and grabbed two bags.
"You're welcome," he said, turning and walking back up the stairs. Lindsey followed him up and into her room. Dropping the bags, he turned around to her.
"So why do you look like you would rather hug Dudley than talk to me?" Lindsey remained silent. "Seriously, what did they tell you about me that's so bad?" Lindsey fidgeted nervously. "Oh no," he said, realizing what they did, "Was it St. Brutus's?"
"Um, maybe," said Lindsey, really unsure of what was going on.
"And you believed them! That's totally a lie, they made that one up a few years ago."
"So where do you go to school?" asked Lindsey skeptically. It was Harry's turn to look nervous.
"Um, well..." He racked his brain for ideas, "Public school. They're embarrassed that I, um, didn't get into Smeltings, Dudley's school."
"Really? I didn't think that you looked like a criminal," said Lindsey, a lot happier. "So what do you think of Dudley?" Harry rolled his eyes. "Looks like we'll get along fine."
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(a/n) so I realize that this is where I start thanking you all individually, so here I go.
Slytherin Angel, Calypzo, Kris, Artemis fire mage of Golin, Casvv, Jagged Edge, Agawa Adiddle, Elenora, Rose, Eliza, Peaceful Nightmares, Danielle Radcliffe, HP Mystery, Crazyme89, Nalli, Queenie, Suckerplucker, and Lioness Silence.
I'd give u all hugs, but I don't know where to find you (which I guess is a smart move on your parts).
"Harry, move! We're late!" screamed Petunia.
"And whose fault is that?" thought Harry. Petunia had insisted that she inspect the house one last time before they left for the airport, but then decided that the guest bedroom needed to be vacuumed once more. So it had been done as quick as possible, but they were still 15 minutes behind schedule.
Harry ran down the stairs and flew out of the front door to the driveway, where Uncle Vernon was waiting impatiently in the car.
"Where the devil were you?" screamed Vernon.
"Last minute cleaning," replied Harry.
"A likely excuse," said Vernon. Petunia had just ran out of the house and hopped in the front seat.
"Let's move dear, we're late," she said. They were leaving Harry with Mrs. Figg while they picked up Dudley, so they dropped him off and sped away.
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"We will be landing momentarily, thank you for flying English Air. We hope you'll fly with us again," said the flight attendant over the intercom.
Lindsey was in her glory, as she looked out over the English countryside below her. It was just as great as she remembered. And the thought of possibly finding her real mom was lurking in her head the entire time. Dudley was asleep next to her. She saw the control tower of the airport and decided to wake him up.
"Dudley!" She said loudly, smacking him in the arm. He grunted and turned to face the other way. "Fine, have it your way." And she began to shake him violently.
"What? What? I'm up!" he cried
"We're about to land, better pack up your things."
"I would have woken myself up, you didn't have to give me whiplash."
"Oh, I'm oh-so-very sorry."
"I cannot wait to see my parents and get out of your company."
"Yeah, I bet. But you might want to wipe the drool away from your chin before we go see them." He glared at her and wiped it away. Then he subtly made a very rude gesture, which Lindsey was getting quite used to.
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Harry wasn't exactly thrilled to be staying at Mrs. Figg's house, seeing as the last time he went, she made him organize her cat photo albums. That was last summer though, and he hoped that she had something a little more interesting this time. He walked up to the front door and rang the bell. He heard a small yell from inside, and then a lot of moving around. When Mrs. Figg finally got to the door a minute or so later, she looked very disheveled.
"Harry, I completely forgot about you staying here today," she said nervously. Harry just stood there. "Well let's get you inside."
Harry walked in and looked around. The usually neat house was very messy. Books were everywhere and the tabby cat that was usually sitting on the recliner was nowhere to be seen.
"I know it's a bit messy, but I've been... well busy." She wandered over to the table with the books and closed them all, muttering some nonsense that Harry couldn't make out.
"Um, do you mind if I get a glass of water?" asked Harry.
"Oh, of course, cups are in the top left cabinet," she replied. Harry walked into the kitchen and grabbed a glass out of the cabinet
"So Mrs. Figg," he began, trying to be nice. "How have you been?"
"Well not so well, it's been a hard time for me, with all my..." She stopped suddenly, with a horrified look to a part of the house Harry couldn't see.
"Arabella, did you find that spell? I tried the books at my house, but it wasn't there." Harry nearly dropped his water. He knew that voice. He quickly ran back to where Mrs. Figg was.
"Lupin?" He cried.
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Dudley and Lindsey were making their way off the ramp and into the airport. Lindsey was following Dudley silently, praying that the people she was about to meet would be friendlier than their son.
"Dudleykins!!!"
Lindsey looked over in the direction of the shout, eyeing a thin woman with an unusually long neck. This must be his mom. Who else would use the term Dudleykins? Dudley rushed over to his mother and gave her a big hug. Then he hugged another man, a large man who looked very similar to his son. Lindsey assumed that this was his dad. She walked over.
"Mrs. Dursley?" she asked politely. Petunia nodded. "I'm Lindsey, it's a pleasure."
"Very nice to meet you," she said, faking a smile, which Lindsey chose to ignore
"Well," said Vernon, "Lets get your things and be off home."
They wandered to the luggage pick-up area, got their things, and made it back to the car. Lindsey quickly found herself liking Mrs. Dursley, and Mrs. Dursley, despite her son's opinion, liked Lindsey as well. They both shared a love of gossip and they were able to talk all the way home about the personal lives of the rich and famous. Vernon and Dudley both remained silent, both because they disliked Lindsey. Vernon disliked her because of a little conversation they had partway through the ride.
"So I hear that Dudley's cousin also lives with you," said Lindsey, "Where is he?"
"Not here," snapped Vernon. This was a touchy subject for him. "He is a very disagreeable boy."
"Oh, well I still would like to meet him. Does he go to school with Dudley?"
"No, he attends St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys." That shut Lindsey up on that subject. What did the kid do to be sent to a criminal school? She didn't want to know.
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"What is going on?" Asked Harry, looking between Lupin and Mrs. Figg suspiciously. They looked at each other and Arabella nodded with a sigh.
"Well Harry," Began Lupin, "This is Arabella Figg. She was recruited by Dumbledore 13 years ago to keep an eye on you. For your own safety you know."
"Wait," said Harry, "You were a witch the entire time? How did I never find out?"
"Squib dear. I can't do a bit of magic. And you would have figured it out if you had been a bit more observant. When you just came in, I had The Huge Book of Hexes wide open on my coffee table. Even I thought that you'd catch on to that one," she said.
"Now Harry, we have work to do, so you can help or you can... I don't know, watch... that," said Lupin, with a confused look at the television.
"I think I'd rather help. What do I need to do?" Arabella smiled. Lupin also looked pleased.
"I'll be back," said Arabella and she went upstairs. Harry and Lupin sat around the kitchen table.
"So how is Sirius?" asked Harry.
"He is, well, not bad considering. I dare say that he is quite anxious to have you visit." Harry smiled as the memory of the letter came back. Lupin noticed this smile. "Yes, I'm sure that Dumbledore will let you come stay with us before long."
"Well at least I'll have something to look forward to," said Harry, a bit upset that he wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. Then they heard a huge crash and spun around to see that Arabella had dropped a large pile of books and they were all now falling down the stairs. "What are all those for?"
"We have to go through them," said Arabella, sighing at the task.
"We need to find a spell. It's called the Locatoris Spell. It helps find any person to the exact square mile," explained Lupin.
"Who are we looking for?" Asked Harry.
"It's not really important," said Arabella.
"Wait, so if you're a squib, how come you have so many wizarding books?"
"Well I consider my home the library of the Order." Lupin coughed and gave Arabella a not-so-subtle glare.
"The Order?"
"No matter, said Lupin, levitating a book and dropping it in front of Harry. "Get to work."
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"Is this your house?" asked Lindsey, looking out the window of the car. They were pulling into a driveway.
"No." Said Petunia. "We need to pick up Dudder's cousin." Lindsey sat back in her seat. The kid attends a frickin' school for criminals. As Vernon strode up to the front door, Lindsey couldn't help but picture the kid she was about to meet. Tall, strong, tattoos, and assorted pierced body parts. But when the kid finally walked outside, she learned that she was totally wrong. He wasn't a big beefy kid. He was tall, yes, but skinny as anything. Lindsey noticed that his clothes were way too big and that he had his glasses taped. His hair was in a messy state and Lindsey, despite thinking that he was a criminal, felt a little guilty.
"Don't feel guilty!" She thought. "He's goes to a school for criminals! Be afraid of him."
Vernon and the cousin got to the car and piled in. Lindsey was unlucky enough to be sitting in the middle, and Dudley's excessive fat made it impossible for her to put distance between herself and the boy. They sat in uncomfortable silence while Vernon backed out. Then Petunia turned around and addressed him.
"You didn't cause Mrs. Figg and trouble, did you?"
"No, I never do." Petunia glared at him.
"Um, I don't mean to be, um, disrespectful or anything," I began, turning to the cousin, trying to be polite. "But, I, um, well, I never got your name."
"Harry," he said shortly. "And you are the American exchange student, right?"
"Yeah, Lindsey." He looked straight me in the eye and then quickly back out the window. His eyes were just like mine, bright green. And his hair was the same color as mine... we could have passed for twins.
The rest of the trip was silent, of course. It was maybe two minutes when we turned onto a little street, Privet Drive, according to the sign. Lindsey smiled as they drove down the street. Looking out the window on Harry's side, she saw two little girls playing hopscotch on the sidewalk and a boy of about 10 kicking around a soccer ball. It was all so... perfect, thought Lindsey with a smile, despite the fact that she was sitting between a convict and a fat jerk. Either way, she was there.
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"Albus we found it." Lupin had just apparated to the Order headquarters where Dumbledore was reading the latest issue of the Daily Prophet and munching on some candy.
"Wonderful, I knew Arabella's library would be useful," said Dumbledore, setting the paper down and popping a chocolate frog in his mouth.
"Of course, it always is. Harry found it you know." Dumbledore spit out the frog.
"Harry knows about Arabella?"
"Yes Albus. It was a complete accident, entirely my fault." He explained to him the events of the afternoon. "I know that this isn't exactly how we planned it, but we had to let him know eventually."
"Yes, that's true," said Dumbledore in a sad manner.
"Oh don't worry, He can handle it."
"Oh I know, but that's not it. Its just that, well I got myself again." He said with a look at his Chocolate Frog card.
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"And this is your room," said Dudley, not in the most positive manner, seeing as he had just shown her around the entire house. Lindsey found the place very nice. Everything was clean and welcoming. "Your bags are downstairs, bring them up and unpack or something."
"Can you help me with them?"
"No," he said, walking out
"Denied," thought Lindsey, jumping onto the bed. She looked around the room that would be her home for the next two weeks. "Not too shabby," she said aloud.
She got up and made her way down the stairs. She walked to the kitchen where her bags sat it a neat pile. She lifted them all up with difficulty and slowly made her way to the stairs.
At the stairs, she was faced with the task of getting the bags upstairs. She looked around to find help, but there was no one. She could hear the television on in the other room and guessed that none of the Dursley's would help her. So she maneuvered her way up, one stair at a time. About 10 minutes later, when she was halfway up, she heard laughing. She looked up and there was Harry at the top of the stairs.
"This isn't funny," Lindsey yelled. Harry stopped laughing right away.
"Oh god," thought Lindsey, "I made him mad, he's going to hurt me now."
"Sorry," he said, trying to keep a straight face, "but it really is." He burst out laughing again. Lindsey smiled cautiously. "Do you want me to help you?" he asked between laughs.
"Um, no, that's all right, I don't want to trouble you," said Lindsey weakly. He gave her an odd look, walked down the stairs, and grabbed two bags.
"You're welcome," he said, turning and walking back up the stairs. Lindsey followed him up and into her room. Dropping the bags, he turned around to her.
"So why do you look like you would rather hug Dudley than talk to me?" Lindsey remained silent. "Seriously, what did they tell you about me that's so bad?" Lindsey fidgeted nervously. "Oh no," he said, realizing what they did, "Was it St. Brutus's?"
"Um, maybe," said Lindsey, really unsure of what was going on.
"And you believed them! That's totally a lie, they made that one up a few years ago."
"So where do you go to school?" asked Lindsey skeptically. It was Harry's turn to look nervous.
"Um, well..." He racked his brain for ideas, "Public school. They're embarrassed that I, um, didn't get into Smeltings, Dudley's school."
"Really? I didn't think that you looked like a criminal," said Lindsey, a lot happier. "So what do you think of Dudley?" Harry rolled his eyes. "Looks like we'll get along fine."
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(a/n) so I realize that this is where I start thanking you all individually, so here I go.
Slytherin Angel, Calypzo, Kris, Artemis fire mage of Golin, Casvv, Jagged Edge, Agawa Adiddle, Elenora, Rose, Eliza, Peaceful Nightmares, Danielle Radcliffe, HP Mystery, Crazyme89, Nalli, Queenie, Suckerplucker, and Lioness Silence.
I'd give u all hugs, but I don't know where to find you (which I guess is a smart move on your parts).