Chapter 6

Morgana Luttrell walked into the Leaky Cauldron and stifled the urge to cry. Her guardian came in behind her and walked around her towards the back. When he realized Morgana hadn't followed him he turned to look at her. Seeing the stricken look on Morganas' face the older man sighed. It wasn't her fault that she was so homesick. England was nothing like Florida, and poor Morgana was having difficulty adjusting to the change.

Morgana was Remus Lupins' American cousin. Twice or thrice removed, certainly, but cousin nonetheless. She was now an exchange student from the Wizarding School in Florida. She had switched with Seamus Finnigan for the next two years. His parents had been very worried by the Wizarding world's nonchalance about the attack of Dementors on the students three years before, but the Death Eaters escape from Azkaban had frightened them no end. They had family in the United States and decided to send Seamus to Florida for the rest of his schooling. He was a half-blood Wizard, a "mud-blood" as some of her "pureblood" friends were prone to calling them, so he would probably fit in better at her school than he had at Hogwarts.

Morgana was pureblood. She could care less, of course. Although many of her friends thought it was important to be "pureblooded", Morgan believed that it was important to use the power she was born with wisely. She missed her friends though. England was so dirty, and crowded, and loud. Her cousin Remus was nice enough, but he was a Were, and apparently here in England that was a bad thing still. She was trying to help him, but he seemed to like to suffer. She looked around the Leaky Cauldron and wondered how the Wizards and Witches here in London could like it so much? It was lopsided, and dingy. The windows were so dirty you couldn't really see out of them, and what you could see was quite depressing. The fireplace was oversized, of course that was because it needed to be large enough for people to floo in, yet still, it seemed too large for the wall it occupied.

Remus placed a gentle hand on Morganas shoulder. She looked up into his deep brown eyes and marveled at how calm he made her feel just by looking at her. She promised herself she was going to get the ingredients for that potion her grandmother had sent her via e-mail. Remus hadn't thought her laptop would work in his house, but it had. Of course, her father had made sure it had a magical power source as well as wireless Internet, but still, Remus' look had been classic.

"If you aren't ready for this dear, we can come back later. I could even have someone fetch the books and things for you," Remus said softly. Morgana smiled. He was always so considerate.

"No, Remus," she said just as softly. "You brought me all this way, and I really do want to see Diagon Alley," she smiled even wider, with a hint of mischievousness. "Besides, cousin, I bet you that Diagon Alley couldn't be more impressive than Avalon Alley, remember?"

Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasly rushed up the stairs behind the house-elf Lily. They hadn't completely understood everything she had said. Yet she was so insistent that they had just grabbed her hands when she demanded it. Finding themselves in Diagon Alley outside The Leaky Cauldron caused them some worry, but the elf just dragged them inside the tavern and up the stairs with her. They neither saw nor heard Remus Lupin and his American cousin as they hurried past.

What they found when they entered the room stole the breath right out of their chests.

Harry was attempting to calm both Dudley Dursley and Draco Malfoy all at once, and Malfoy looked as if someone had, well, there were no words for what Malfoy looked like. Hermione realized that Dudley was about to go into hysterics and immediately stepped up to him.

"It's all right, Dudley," she said calmly if forcefully. He looked at, his pig like face wasn't so pig like anymore, although he was still very fat. Her calm attitude caused him to gulp back his next outburst and nod.

"I wasn't expecting a bunch of fre…urm…" He smiled nervously at a loss for what to say now.

"It's all right, Dudley," Harry said in slight exasperation. "I don't blame you for being so upset," that being the understatement of the day even Dudley relaxed enough to smile. "Ginny, you are better at healing charms than I am, can you do something about the worst of these wounds?" Harry asked. Draco began screaming and flailing around, and Harry; even though it was obvious he didn't want to; tried wrapping his arms around him to keep him still. As strong as Harry was, it was obvious that Draco was so far gone that he was too strong for Harry to hold down. Dudley, showing he might actually have a good heart after all, stepped over and grabbed Draco around the chest, pinning his swinging arms to his side; allowing Ginny enough room to be able to work on the most obvious of his wounds.

When Draco was sleeping, if fitfully, the two witches, one wizard and muggle sat down to talk. Harry came clean about the visions he'd been getting all yesterday. Hermione and Ginny stared at Harry in unadulterated horror. Dudley turned to look at Draco, and only Harry saw the look of empathy on his face.

"Seems to me, you've got a problem," Dudley said quietly. He looked as if he had a major headache because his face was all red.

"What problem?" Hermione asked archly.

"If I understand it rightly," Dudley said slowly. "This Voldemort fellow is going to be looking for his play thing." It sounded harsh and Harry was the only one who didn't shudder at the inference. After what he had seen, he had no doubt that that was exactly what Riddle thought of Draco.

"You're right, Dudley, and so we need to find a place to keep him where Voldemort can't find him."