The Egyptian Exodus
Chapter Four: Among the Uncivilized
Morocco was hot, as it ought to be in August. The children, who by now were quite used to dividing up into groups of four and taking care of each other, delighted in wandering the markets and watching trained monkey's fleece tourists.
Lucy continued to pour over the stack of Daily Prophets that she had received while in Disney World. What wasn't reported was almost as worrisome as what was. There was the prerequisite article about Harry Potter's mental state, a fluff piece that would glorify Fudge, a dark piece about Dumbledore, and then pages and pages of nothing. The papers only told what had happened, and gave no indication if any progress was being made, or who had been arrested.
She was irked, but not surprised to hear that the Ministry still intended to strictly regulate witches and wizards entering the country, and was subjecting all resident aliens to unimaginable scrutiny, with the sole exception of those students under the immediate supervision of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore of the Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Those individuals were permitted unmolested passage through the wizarding world whilst directly en route to or from school.
Lucy snorted, and it had only taking the fending off of an unheard of number of dementors to get them that.
The arrival of the papers had coincided with the arrival of her Hogwarts letter, by seperate owl. Lucy was more than a bit bemused to read the letter, with the direction, "Lucy Montero, the Spinning Teacups, The Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando Florida, the United States ." That was, once the operator had stopped yelling at the owls inside his ride and once the world had stopped spinning long enough for her to be able to read, but which time she narrowly escaped having to explain the newspapers which Jasmine was attempting to read.
Owl mail really could be unreasonably complicated, and the sooner that wizards discovered the internet the better, in her opinion.
The letter came with a note from Dumbledore, saying that as it seemed she did not wish to be found this summer with any ease, he had waitied to send her letter until, as he understood, she would also be recieving another shipment from the magical world. Lucy still wondered at how Dumbledore knew she was having a stack of Daily Prophets delivered to her, but she didn't intend to ask. The letter was the same as usual, and reminded her that she needed to pick up a copy of her new Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook at some point; it was the only text she had not been able to procure from Warren Lane or one of the other graduating international students, seeing that as usual, there was to be a new professor this year.
She decided to wait until Diego was in a better mood to approach him about when might be a good time for her to take THAT little trip. He had made the mistake of drinking the water and was now sick as a dog. Zahra assured them that it would pass soon after he took a remedy she had learned from her father, but at the moment she was the only one brave enough to come within ten feet of the miserable Mexican.
Then again, Lucy thought with a smile, she didn't have to get too close to him to discuss the matter...
Hey Don Juan, how's it going?
Don't you have any respect for the dead?
You're not dead, you just wish you were.
Shouldn't you be minding the children?
They pretty much mind themselves, besides, I'm all out of candy at the moment.
What?
Never mind. Listen, I need to slip out some afternoon and go pick up some things for school.
No way are you going by yourself.
Right, of course not, because you know so much about the wizarding world.
Those people can't be trusted. They keep trying to arrest you.
Only once, and my sentance has been suspended, so it should be fine.
Should be fine, right, just that they have these tall cloaked THINGS that suck out your soul running loose, and the little gods only know what else that homicidal maniac, who by the way, is ALSO running loose with a gaggle of followers, has managed to recruit in recent months. Sure, it'll be fine and dandy.
It is very unlikely that there will be dementors in Diagon Ally.
Lucy, you're the one who told me they got a good chunk out of the French Minister of Magic. If they could get to a man as well protected as that, what makes you think that you are going to be any safer? Have you forgotten why we are out here in the first place.
No, of course not. Which is why I will just dart in and out. If we are being hunted that's the last place they will look for me.
Unless they come to the not too difficult to draw conclusion that you need to buy schoolbooks like every other student. Can't you let one of your friends do it?
Do you really want me to send more letters than necessary? An owl can be traced, a gate cannot.
She heard the mental sigh that meant she had won. She tried not to gloat too much, after all, he was a dying man.
When do you want to go?
Tomorrow morning.
Morning?
The fewer people the better, the ally will be less crowded.
Fine. But you're explaining this to Omiri.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Omiri had not been happy. As her gating buddy her had insisted on coming along. In the end she had been forced to drug him, in a matter of speaking. She had bought massive quantities of chocolate at the bazaar and had left him in charge of them in her absence.
She gated quickly from one ally to another. She tripped over a trash can and scared the wits out of a pack of cats before she emerged, wiping trash and dirt from her clothes, a few doors down from the Leaky Cauldron. Gating into Diagon Ally wasn't impossible, but Lucy preferred the company of muggles rather than wizards. Their allys could be depended upon to have little besides trash cans and cats. The little gods only KNEW what was in a wizard's side ally, and she didn't care to discover it by landing in it.
It was early in the morning, which meant that there weren't too many people in the pub other than the inn's guests who were down for breakfast. Lucy managed to slip through to the back without exciting comment, tapped the bricks with her wand, and stepped into Diagon Ally.
For a Saturday morning it was busier than she thought. Fortunately, she knew where she was going, and she had remembered to bring a robe, of sorts. It was a black cloak from the bazaar, but it looked enough like typical wizard-wear that hopefully she wouldn't have a neon "MUGGLE" sign on her back. She just wanted to slip in and out.
Unfortunately, this particular morning happened to be the launch of Rita Skeeter's book, simply entitled "Scandal," and the line at Flourish and Blott's extended out the door and into the street. Lucy groaned. All she wanted was her damn text book.
Elbowing her way inside she found the Hogwarts section and scanned the shelf for "Survival By Wand". There was a large stack, most students had not been in to pick theirs up yet. As an afterthough she remembered she also needed her Apparator's Education workbook as well. The text, "Splinching is Only the Beginning," she had from Warren, but he had burnt the workbook the minute he passed his test, so Lucy would have to get that on her own.
In the front of the store a positively POISONOUS looking woman with outrageous glasses was perched on a stool signing book covers while the rest of the people in line were already flipping through the large tome, gasping at intervals and pointing out particularly interesting passages to their neighbors. Apparantly the most unimaginable events were occuring on page 264.
Lucy looked at the line, hoping she could just cut in in front, buy her books, and get out. She carefully picked her way through to the counter, only to be met with a withering stare from a rather large wizard, who gruffly pointed with his wand towards the mass of humanity. "Line's that way."
Lucy groaned, and dragged her feet back towards the door. Perhaps if she just kept on walking...but then, she hardly needed another misdemeanor charge on her record with the Ministry.
So much for running in and out.
"Hey, what are you doing here?"
She spun around and came face to face with Magnus Mercury.
"Magnus! That is your name, right?"
Magnus grinned, it stretched from ear to ear. "Yeah, that's me. And you're Lucy, I remember that much. Trying to buy books, is that it?"
Lucy looked at the pair in her hands. "You caught me in the act. Looks like it will only take me an hour or two."
Magnus looked at the line and groaned. "Geez, what a circus. And that Skeeter woman is the ringmaster from Hell, you won't believe the demands. I got sent out three times before the coffee was to her liking. You'd think she was royalty. And the book is complete trash. But it's flying off the shelves like you wouldn't believe."
"That's what it looks like, so you work here?"
Magnus nodded. "My cousin got me the job for the summer. Involves a lot of heavy lifting, I'd kill to be of age and able to use magic right about now. I am getting some nice biceps though."
"Any chance you could use them to defend me from the scary wizard at the front and let me buy these and be on my way?"
Magnus glanced at the counter. "Who, Cassius? He's a pussycat. It's the damn Skeeter woman that's put him in a bad mood. Come on, I'll ring you up in the back, he won't mind."
With the skill and agility that comes from being 15 and 17, they threaded through the crowd, and Magnus lead her by the hand around the counter and into the back room.
"Okay," Magnus sat at a desk in on the back wall, and reaching through a huge pile of papers came up with a tatty notebook and a pencil, "Give us those for a minute."
Lucy handed over the books, Magnus noted down the prices.
"And how will you be paying, Miss?"
That was a good question, and one Lucy had quite forgotten about. Her account at Gringott's was nearly bone dry, holding just what was required to keep it open. The Slytherin gambling ring was paying for her tuition and expenses, but she wasn't sure how that was happening, to tell the truth.
"I don't know," she sighed.
Magnus looked up. "You don't know? I take it you have no cash?"
Lucy shook her head.
"Do you want to draw on your Gringott's account, we can do that directly from here."
"I don't think that will be of much use, it's pretty near empty. See, there was some fund that was going to pay for my tuition and-"
"Oh," Magnus flushed, "Oh of course, no I forgot, you're the first one to come in. Right, we've got your names, so we just need a wand identification and then someone from the trust will come in and pay for all your supplies at the end of August."
"Really?"
Magnus nodded, rummaging around in the desk again. "Yeah, we got a letter back in June, but I was mostly stocking shelves, they hadn't let me work the counter until the new shipments were settled, I didn't pay attention....ahh, here we are. If you would just tap your name with the wand please."
Lucy found her name, tapped, and saw it shimmer, then return to black.
"Right, that's all we need. I'll just note down your purchases here for the trust to pay for.... that's it. Here, let me wrap those."
In a flash her books were wrapped somewhat clumsily in brown paper and tied with a string. Magnus handed them back sheepishly. "I don't usually do that part. There's a wrapping charm, but I'm underage, so I have to do it by hand. That's pretty good for me, you should see my Christmas gifts."
Lucy grinned. "It's fine. So, while I've got you, have you had any...problems over the summer? How's the patch working?"
"Just fine, I think. I mean, I haven't sent anything flying since you put it on, so looks like you did a good job. I'll be glad to get it under control though, feel a bit like a dormant volcano or something right now."
Lucy smiled, she was going to like Magnus, she thought.
"Mercury," a gruff voice shouted from the front of the store, "If yer done playing with the lady there's work to be done up here!"
Magnus rolled his eyes, "She's a customer Cas!" He waved the bill in the air.
"I don't care if she's the bleedin' queen, we've got enough to deal with as it is! Is she done?"
"Yes!" Lucy called.
"Good, cause the Queen a Sheba has demanded some fancy tea, and I need Master Mercury over there to go fetch it!"
"Just my luck," Magnus mumbled as he and Lucy made their way out.
"Come on, I'll walk you as far as Hestia's, it's on the way back."
Hestia's House of Herbal Delight's was probably the absolute LAST place any fifteen year old boy wanted to be caught dead in. Lucy could read it in Magnus's face as they approached the chiffon'd palace, which was the type of place you could smell long before you could see.
It was time to repay the favor.
"I'll go in and buy it for you."
"You'd have my eternal gratitude. I have friends working at The Splintered End and I'd never live it down if they saw me."
Lucy looked up the street towards the racing broom store and handed her books to Magnus.
"I'll make it quick."
But as it turned out, there was a virtual mountian of teas in the back of the store, and Lucy found herself on her knees, searching for the particular variety that Rita Skeeter had demanded.
"Aha!" Seizing the jar from the second shelf to the bottom, she rose-
And found herself staring at a gleaming white beard that looked awfully familiar.
"Good afternoon, Miss Montero."
"Hello headmaster. I didn't expect to see you here."
Dumbledore smiled. "I have a little tickle in my throat, I find the clover honey and mint tea Madam Hestia sells to be just the thing for it. I must say that I AM surprised to see you here, I was under the impression that you were abroad for the summer."
It sounded simple and conversational, but from the slightly raised eyebrow on Dumbledore's smiling face, Lucy could tell that he wanted an answer.
"I was, I mean, I am, it's just that, I needed to pick up a few things for school."
Dumbledore looked down at the tea.
"Oh, no, this is for Magnus."
"Mr. Mercury has a hankering for... East Asian Honeysuckle and Ginko Rhapsody?"
Lucy smiled, "Not exactly, but Ms Skeeter does, and since he helped me buy my books, I decided to spare him the embarassment of being seen in here."
Dumbledore smiled.
"I mean, not that it should be embarassing to be seen in here, it's just that, when you are a fifteen year old boy, you might find it-"
"Hard as it may be for you to imagine, Miss Montero, I was a fifteen year old boy myself once, and you could not have induced me to set foot in this store for all the gold in Gringott's."
"The place is a bit overwhelming, I'll be glad to leave."
Dumbledore nodded, "That was what I wanted to speak to you about Lucy. I think it would be a good idea if you left London entirely as soon as possible."
Lucy took a few moments to process this. "I didn't intend to stay very long, but might I ask why?"
Dumbledore sighed, "It's a matter of wording, really. The legistlation that you and the other students put before the Ministry last spring only protects you from harassment and the authorities while you are under my guardianship. That means only while you are a student at school or directly on your way to or from school. At any other time, you are subject to the authority of the Department of Immigration. For example, right now."
Lucy nodded, "Then, they haven't given up on blaming us for matters that we had nothing to do with, is that it?"
Dumbledore nodded, "Exactly. They are particularly irked that I had all of your sentances truncated, and if I were you, I would stay out of their way as much as possible."
"Well, I only intended to stay as long as it took me to buy my books, and that's finished. I don't expect to be back until September."
"I'll see you at school then, Miss Montero."
Lucy stepped in line to buy the tea. By the time she had paid and was heading out of the store, she couldn't find Dumbledore anywhere.
Odd, but then, everything about Hogwarts and the Eastern Wizarding World in general was a little bit odd.
In front of her, a ten year old boy bit into a piece of candy and sprouted yellow feathers on the top of his head. He proceeded to run down the street followed by two hysterical girls with long brown tails.
Case in point.
Magnus was waiting a safe distance from Hestia's.
"I hope this will hold that woman. If she keeps up like this Cassius is liable to start hexing her and then he'll be fired and I'll have to actually speak to her."
"Well, better hope for the best then."
"See you at school!"
Lucy nodded, made her way back to the Leaky Cauldron and out into good old muggle London as fast as she could.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Her encounter with Magnus and the headmaster continued to occupy her mind for some days thereafter. As a result, the twelve year olds under her supervision had free reign over their charges; after Diego had put out his fourth fire of the day he and Zahra decided it was time for another educational destination.
Lucy wasn't so thrilled.
"What, may I ask, is wrong with Guam? They have brown tree snakes here, Ahkmed is in absolute heaven."
"Well I'm in hell! The kids run wild on the beach, Darius is shaping up to be a pyromaniac, Ari hasn't come out of the palm tree in three days and if I have to eat one more meal served on banana leaves I'm going to hurl! We're taking the kids somewhere civilized."
"Fine." Lucy stood up and began to pull jeans on over her bathing suit.
"Just like that?"
Lucy shrugged. "I was joking about the snakes, well, not entirely, of course the little monster will be dissapointed, but I don't really care."
Diego grabbed her by the arm as she went to pack up her bag.
"What's with you? You've been distracted ever since you came back."
"Dumbledore told me I shouldn't come back until September when we report for term."
"And?"
"And I never expected that being barred from the Eastern Wizarding World would irritate me."
"But it does?"
"Like poison sumac in your underwear. It shouldn't, I don't belong there. But then I was thinking, who decides who belongs there? Who's to say why Sergei, or Nicholas, or Sasha or William or I should be limited as to when we can come into that society?"
"Who's telling you now?"
Lucy shrugged. "I don't know. Not Dumbledore, he was just trying to keep me out of trouble. And at a time like this you would think the Ministry would be reaching out to the international community for help."
"Maybe they're too proud. The little gods know that some of the more remote schools resisted being included in the web simply because it would alert people when they were in danger, and they didn't like others knowing they were weak."
"Maybe. But the more I thought about it the more helpless I felt. It's bad enough being cut off from the Circle, but I feel more and more like back in England there is so much secrecy and beuracracy that even the wizards don't know what's going on, the students least of all."
Diego sighed, so that was it. He knew Lucy better than anyone else on earth, and emotionally he knew her even better than Antolin. She absolutely HATED to be left out of anything, to not know. There was no end to the means she would use to try and find out what was being hidden from her. It was a quality that made it difficult to hide Christmas presents.
He rubbed her shoulders soothingly. "Listen, you aren't going to find anything out while we're tossing about out here. Just relax, and when you are back in that rainy, clammy, dismal country you can ferret out answers from dawn till dusk. And until then, try and keep an eye on the kids, I caught Regina trying to sell off Atreu again."
"Well what was her asking price?"
"Lucy!"
"I'll talk to her."
"Good, now get packed."
"Where are we going again?"
"Somewhere civilized."