"WHAT?!"
"Don't worry Danika. It is a perfectly safe way to travel. Just make you sure stand perfectly still, tuck your elbows in. And don't breath too hard or open your eyes; you'll get soot in them. I will say the location for you, and when to get to the destination fireplace, just stay right where you are. Kingsley Shacklebolt will be right there to help you. And to make sure you don't run off anywhere," he added under his breath. "I will be right behind, then we can work out all of these questions. And you can meet the rest of the Order. Okay?"
Harry grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the fireplace.
"Ready here we go." He took a handful of Floo powder out of his jacket pocket and gave a "thumbs-up" symbol to Lupin out the window with his free hand before throwing the powder into the fire, shouting "The Tattered Cover Bookstore, Level –3" and shoving Danika into the newly glowing green flames.
Unfortunately for Danika, she turned and tried to say "WHAT?!" (for at least the second time that morning) at exactly the wrong moment. She caught a ball of ash and soot right on her face, sending her into a fit of coughing. Luckily, the fireplace at the Café was only connected to the Tattered Cover fireplace four on the –3 level, so there was no possible way for Danika to tumble out.
Harry grabbed a handful of the sparkling powder and in an instant was on his was to the 3rd sublevel of the Tattered Cover Bookstore.
Danika landed in a heap at the feet of one Kingsley Shacklebolt.
"I see you survived all right miss," he said. "You would do best to get out of the miss, Harry will be coming soon and you wouldn't want to be in the way."
Danika coughed the last of the ash out of her mouth and muttered "no." She clambered to her feet and stepped out of the way just before Harry was thrown from the flames. A large "CRACK" sound made the three turn to face the middle of the room.
One witch and one wizard stood behind them with huge smiles on their faces. The witch grabbed Danika's hand and shook it furiously.
"My name is Tonks, so glad that you finally decided to come with us."
The wizard turned to Harry.
"Shit Harry, what took you so long? You knew that the Polyjuice potion would stop being effective after an hour. Crookshanks' whiskers were starting to come through."
Danika then noticed that he was holding a large orange cat. Or at least, she thought it was a cat.
"But, I thought Polyjuice potion was only intended for human into human transformation?" Harry asked.
"We had Snape tweak it a little. We couldn't very well have asked a member of the Order to take the time to pretend to be a knocked out boy so that you could get Danika, right? Besides, Hermione volunteered him."
Harry and Danika both seemed to become more aware of their surroundings just after narrowly being missed by a small witch on a toy broom. They were standing in a large cavernous space lined with fireplaces. People were rushing around trying to find the right fireplace, or the right person. In the center of the room there was a circle of carts with wizards and witches standing around. Small leprechauns manned the carts, and they were selling candy, and books, and toys, and really anything you could possibly want, nearly.
There was another cart being pushed around the room. The somewhat fat man was wearing a yellow beanie and was yelling about exchanging you Muggle money to wizarding money.
"Best rate in town! Come and exchange now, the rate in Europe is nowhere near as good as mine! Only a 6 sickle service charge!" he roared, his voice echoing through the room.
A parrot flew down and landed on Tonks' shoulder. "Welcome to the Tattered Cover," he squawked. "If you have any need for Muggle books, they can be purchased upstairs, though I would like to remind you that magic is strictly forbidden anywhere but the sub-levels. The U.S. branch of the Ministry in located on levels –5 through –13. Please remember that the only fireplace that can be used for international travel is the large one on level –4. Level –1 is the food level. There you will find restaurants and cafés. The housing level is –2, plenty of fine inns for your convenience can be found there. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to call me. My name is Mo," he started to fly but Kingsley stopped him.
"Mo? We are here for a meeting that will be occurring in meeting room 4X. Could you please direct us in the right, erm, direction?"
"Yes of course. You can just follow the large circular staircase down for 3 levels, and then take you first left, and then another left then a right. Go through the bright purple door, take a left, go down one flight of stairs, then your meeting room will be on the right. Or you can travel through the fireplace. If you have you own Floo powder then I believe fireplace 83 is open. If not, you can purchase some Floo powder at the Floo powder kiosk located in the middle of the room. You can also apparate if you wish. My name is Mo, call me with any other questions you may have," he turned and flew of towards some other new comers.
"Don't worry Danika. It is a perfectly safe way to travel. Just make you sure stand perfectly still, tuck your elbows in. And don't breath too hard or open your eyes; you'll get soot in them. I will say the location for you, and when to get to the destination fireplace, just stay right where you are. Kingsley Shacklebolt will be right there to help you. And to make sure you don't run off anywhere," he added under his breath. "I will be right behind, then we can work out all of these questions. And you can meet the rest of the Order. Okay?"
Harry grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the fireplace.
"Ready here we go." He took a handful of Floo powder out of his jacket pocket and gave a "thumbs-up" symbol to Lupin out the window with his free hand before throwing the powder into the fire, shouting "The Tattered Cover Bookstore, Level –3" and shoving Danika into the newly glowing green flames.
Unfortunately for Danika, she turned and tried to say "WHAT?!" (for at least the second time that morning) at exactly the wrong moment. She caught a ball of ash and soot right on her face, sending her into a fit of coughing. Luckily, the fireplace at the Café was only connected to the Tattered Cover fireplace four on the –3 level, so there was no possible way for Danika to tumble out.
Harry grabbed a handful of the sparkling powder and in an instant was on his was to the 3rd sublevel of the Tattered Cover Bookstore.
Danika landed in a heap at the feet of one Kingsley Shacklebolt.
"I see you survived all right miss," he said. "You would do best to get out of the miss, Harry will be coming soon and you wouldn't want to be in the way."
Danika coughed the last of the ash out of her mouth and muttered "no." She clambered to her feet and stepped out of the way just before Harry was thrown from the flames. A large "CRACK" sound made the three turn to face the middle of the room.
One witch and one wizard stood behind them with huge smiles on their faces. The witch grabbed Danika's hand and shook it furiously.
"My name is Tonks, so glad that you finally decided to come with us."
The wizard turned to Harry.
"Shit Harry, what took you so long? You knew that the Polyjuice potion would stop being effective after an hour. Crookshanks' whiskers were starting to come through."
Danika then noticed that he was holding a large orange cat. Or at least, she thought it was a cat.
"But, I thought Polyjuice potion was only intended for human into human transformation?" Harry asked.
"We had Snape tweak it a little. We couldn't very well have asked a member of the Order to take the time to pretend to be a knocked out boy so that you could get Danika, right? Besides, Hermione volunteered him."
Harry and Danika both seemed to become more aware of their surroundings just after narrowly being missed by a small witch on a toy broom. They were standing in a large cavernous space lined with fireplaces. People were rushing around trying to find the right fireplace, or the right person. In the center of the room there was a circle of carts with wizards and witches standing around. Small leprechauns manned the carts, and they were selling candy, and books, and toys, and really anything you could possibly want, nearly.
There was another cart being pushed around the room. The somewhat fat man was wearing a yellow beanie and was yelling about exchanging you Muggle money to wizarding money.
"Best rate in town! Come and exchange now, the rate in Europe is nowhere near as good as mine! Only a 6 sickle service charge!" he roared, his voice echoing through the room.
A parrot flew down and landed on Tonks' shoulder. "Welcome to the Tattered Cover," he squawked. "If you have any need for Muggle books, they can be purchased upstairs, though I would like to remind you that magic is strictly forbidden anywhere but the sub-levels. The U.S. branch of the Ministry in located on levels –5 through –13. Please remember that the only fireplace that can be used for international travel is the large one on level –4. Level –1 is the food level. There you will find restaurants and cafés. The housing level is –2, plenty of fine inns for your convenience can be found there. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to call me. My name is Mo," he started to fly but Kingsley stopped him.
"Mo? We are here for a meeting that will be occurring in meeting room 4X. Could you please direct us in the right, erm, direction?"
"Yes of course. You can just follow the large circular staircase down for 3 levels, and then take you first left, and then another left then a right. Go through the bright purple door, take a left, go down one flight of stairs, then your meeting room will be on the right. Or you can travel through the fireplace. If you have you own Floo powder then I believe fireplace 83 is open. If not, you can purchase some Floo powder at the Floo powder kiosk located in the middle of the room. You can also apparate if you wish. My name is Mo, call me with any other questions you may have," he turned and flew of towards some other new comers.