We missed the train. Perhaps the most sensible thing to do was to stay in London from the day before yesterday, but as they say, a good idea comes later. Remus left for school early in the morning, and Sirius was going to take us in the car. And we would have made it if his older Ford hadn't broken down four times on the way. Sirius was swearing so hard that Pat and I listened. After all, we didn't arrive at King's Cross until a quarter past eleven. Lou hovered at the train station, clearly waiting for us.
"Where the hell have you been? I've been hanging out here for half an hour, and people are already looking at me strangely!" It wasn't until thirty minutes later that people started looking at Lou strangely? This is her personal best! "Your train's gone, by the way," she said. This is her personal best! "Your train's gone, by the way," she said.
"Oh," Pat said, looking surprised, "we didn't know."
"Can we catch up with him at the next station?" I suggested hesitantly. "The Hogwarts Express runs non — stop," his godfather said grimly.
"Not through the fireplace," Pat said. Apparently, he didn't like playing Santa Claus either. Sirius sighed.
"All right. I'll send you on the Night Knight. We'll stop at the same place, though." Pat and I exchanged glances. We had the same look of disbelief on our faces.
"This is a bus," Lou said, anticipating all the questions. My friend and I both breathed a sigh of relief.
After forty minutes of London traffic (and we still got off pretty well) we arrived at a small, filthy square, where several similar stunted houses stood. The situation they escalated the most gloomy.
Grimmold Square," Pat read the sign. "What do we need here?"
"The Twelfth house," Sirius said in an indescribably disgusted voice, as if the very thought of it made him feel sick.
"Here's the eleventh," I said, "and there's the thirteenth. And where?.. "
With these words of mine, as if out of nowhere, a gloomy domina jumped out between these houses. It looked very shabby, the windows were dirty, and the door was ragged.
"Here it is," Pat finished for me, "and what is this place? A magical bus station for late school children?"
Sirius snorted.
"This is my parents ' house. Don't worry, we won't be here long."
The house didn't look any better inside. My godfather told us to be quiet and wait for him here, but Lou bumped into something in the dark and it turned over with a deafening thud.
"I'm sorry," she muttered, but it was drowned out by a bloodcurdling scream that turned into a scream:
"You!!! In this house!!! Defiler of traditions!!! Blood traitor!!!"
"Shut up, you old witch!" Sirius snarled, waving his wand, and the curtains slammed shut. It turned out to be the portrait yelling.
"So you've met my mother, Harry," his godfather said with a wry smile. I found myself clutching the wall with one hand and my heart with the other.
"Now I understand why you ran away from home, Sirius," I said with feeling. "And I was complaining about my relatives" Lou said with some indescribable emotion. A few minutes later, my godfather thrust a heavy volume into my hand.
"Tell Remus. He's been asking for a long time."
When we reached the square, Sirius sighed and threw out his wand. I opened my mouth to ask why he was doing this, but with a loud BANG, a cheerful three-story bus of bright purple color appeared out of nowhere. I stopped, almost bumping into the next house, and a pimply guy, not much older than me, with ears like the handles of a jug, jumped out like a jack-in-the-box.
"Welcome to the Knight Bus, a transport for wizards and witches in need," he said grandly, " my name is Stan Shunpike, and I'm your con…"
He stared at Sirius, his pomposity quickly disappearing.
"Ern, look at that Sirius Black!" Ern must have been the bus driver, a skinny old man with thick-lensed glasses. Maybe the fireplace isn't so bad after all.
The godfather grimaced.
"Wow! Harry Potter!" the conductor continued to marvel. Sirius grimaced again and counted out a certain amount of money.
"Take" he handed them to Stan, who was still staring at my scar, " take them to Hogwarts."
"Aren't you with us?" I asked, looking at Sirius and Lou.
"No, you'll get there yourself," he said.
Lou gave us a final kiss, and she looked sad.
"You look like you're burying us," Pat told her.
"It will be dreadfully boring without you."
My godfather sighed.
"Well, then. Good luck to you. Learn perfectly.
I'll look forward to Christmas."
Then he smiled, and there was something vaguely hooligan about it.
"And ... do something… Marauder's place."
That was my godfather's message.
The bus didn't have normal seats, but just ordinary chairs. We had a couple of seats at the end of the bus on the first floor, and then this miracle transport jerked with a loud "BANG" and I almost fell over. Remembering Ernie's driver's glasses, I suddenly wondered if he'd ever passed for a driver's license. There weren't many passengers, but they were all quite colorful. In front of us sat an elderly wizard with a thick mustache that hung down the sides of his mouth almost to his chin, a monocle in his eye, and reading, I could see, "Transformations Today." He was surprisingly able to stay in his chair when Pat and I were being buffeted in different directions by each new "BANG". A little further on sat a middle-aged witch in a pointed hat. She looked rather miserable, holding a handkerchief to her lips, and her complexion varied from yellow to light green depending on the steepness of the turn. In the corner farthest from us sat a strange creature half the height of a man, wrapped in a traveling cloak and puffing a pipe from under it.
"A regular bus would be much more convenient," Pat grumbled, gripping his chair as he made another turn. Then I tried to look at the book Sirius had given us.
"Wow!" This isn't a book for schoolboys, "he whistled, skimming the beginning. I bet it's dark magic." I looked where Pat was pointing. I looked where Pat was pointing. But I don't think they're the worst, either. "A spell to make your nose hair grow five times faster than normal? What nonsense. If you need to distract someone, it is better to take a good strong stick…"
"BANG!" and we almost hit the floor on our noses. The book flew forward a couple of feet.
"Okay, not with a stick," I said, leveling my position, "but I still think a good Stupefy will be more effective." Pat rolled his eyes pointedly at the ceiling and continued flipping through the book he'd picked up. I looked at him, and again I was filled with indecision and the feeling that I had interfered with something too personal. The thing is, I had a conversation with Remus last night. It was already quite late, so I decided to go out for a breath of fresh air and look for the Sami people. Lupin followed me, and when we went out into the garden, he said he wanted to talk about my friend.
"What about him?" I asked warily.
Actually," Remus began, "I'd like to ask you something… About his parents."
I was surprised by this turn of events.
"Maybe we should talk to him, then."
The prospect of whispering behind Pat's back made me extremely uncomfortable. Remus looked rather confused. Apparently, this conversation didn't bring him any joy either.
"I don't think that would be tactful… I know it's none of my business, but… And I can't help but ask."
"Well, ask away," I said to Remus, trying to overcome all my unpleasant feelings.
"In general… Do you know if Pat knows his father?"
"No," I said quickly, "he only knows his name."
"Severus Snape," said Lupin, almost to himself.
"You know?" I asked, surprised.
Well, it's not hard to put two and two together here," Remus chuckled, "I told you I remember Pat's mom well. And a certain external similarity…"
"So you know him?" I was even more surprised.
"Of course. After all, he's the one who makes me the Wolfsbane Potion every month. He's a Potions teacher at Hogwarts."
I whistled. That was all I could say to Lupin. Hell, I was in a stupid position. I should tell Pat, of course. And how? "Great! Your dad's going to teach here! Pretty cool, huh?"
I felt the Sami slipping on my shoe, and I bent down and picked it up. It wrapped itself around my wrist in a familiar way.
"Is he really an asshole?" I blurted out. That's definitely not what I wanted to ask. Even in the dark, Lupin's eyebrows were raised.
"Pat thinks so," I added defensively.
"Hmm. Snape, of course, is human… peculiar"
"You think he knows? Well, about Pat?"
Remus thought for a moment, then shook his head.
"I don't think so. Severus Snape is not the kind of person to leave his only son to be raised among Muggles. I'm sure of that…"
Here's what to do? To say or not to say? Not to say that he'll find out anyway, if this Snape is going to be our teacher.
I must say, I decided. But just as I opened my mouth, with another deafening BANG, the bus braked sharply and Pat and I both fell off our chairs. When I got up from the floor, I saw the outskirts of a village through the window.
"Hogsmeade!" happily announced our conductor, "then you supposedly yourself. Yes, it's close! Stan assured us, pointing out the window."
There, in the distance, were the pointed towers of an old castle. Well, there's nothing to do. We stepped out into a gloomy September evening and the three-story purple bus with another "BANG" disappeared.
"Hogsmeade," I said, "is that village near Hogwarts where only wizards live. Lupin told me, remember?"
"I don't think we'll be able to get a taxi here," Pat said grimly, looking around at the nearest houses. I gripped the handle of the trunk and sighed.
"Come on."
"That's great. Great. Just a class. Never better" Pat recited. We were standing at the huge and closed gates of Hogwarts. By the time we got here, it was getting really late. The sky was getting more and more overcast, and it was about to start raining. That's all we needed for complete happiness.
The Sami woman leaned slightly off my arm and whispered,
"There's a lot of security around here."
"How do you know that?" I asked, surprised.
"I don't know. i feel"
"The Sami says that everything is protected here," I informed my friend.
"Did you take her with you?" Pat looked at her.
"As you can see. I told you, by the way."
"I don't remember."
"Deafness or sclerosis?"
"Fuck you!"..
Pat lowered his trunk to the ground and sat on it, propping his head in his hands.
"So we'll just sit here until someone finds us!"
Out of nowhere, I blurted out,
"Your father works at Hogwarts."
Pat stared at me blankly.
"What?"
"Severus Snape is going to teach us Potions" I said, feeling better... I don't know by whom. But I didn't like it.
"What makes you think that?" Pat asked, looking me in the eye.
"Remus told me yesterday."
My friend paled a little, then got up and turned away, walking to the gate.
"Damn it!" he finally shouted, kicking the gate hard and glaring at me:
"Couldn't you have told me earlier?"
"When before? At night? And what would you do? Why don't you go to Hogwarts?"
Pat sat down on the trunk again, took out a cigarette, and lit it.
"Yes. No. Of course I would go. Just... I don't know ... mentally prepared, or something."
I didn't say anything, I feel completely out of place.
"And what did Lupin say about him?"
Pat finally asked.
"Well…" I drawled, remembering the details of yesterday's conversation "I said that Snape is a peculiar person. Also, Rem is sure that he has no idea that he has a son."
Pat was grinning grimly. I paused for a moment, then added,
"He said you looked like him."
"He's probably just a hunk," my friend said ironically.
Then I noticed a figure approaching from the direction of the castle. Pat tossed the butt of his cigarette to the ground and quickly crushed it under his sneaker. A lady with a very stern expression on her face and a look that made you want to stretch out in a frown, went to the gate and opened the lock with complex touches of a magic wand.
She gave us a sharp look and said —
"Mr. Potter and Mr. Random, I presume?" We nodded our heads in unison.
"I'm Professor McGonagall. Your godfather sent a message," she said to me, "that you missed the Hogwarts Express. Let's go."
We grabbed our trunks and hurried after her.
"Wasn't the message meant for Remus?" I asked her.
The professor looked at me, her eyebrows slightly raised, as if surprised at my familiarity.
"Professor Lupin," she said distinctly, "hasn't arrived at the school yet."
"But he was supposed to be here this morning!"
Pat said, surprised.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Random, but Professor Lupin doesn't report his movements to me," Professor McGonagall snapped. We didn't ask any more questions. The closer we got to the castle, the more I felt like I was traveling through time. Although a school in a medieval castle is quite fun when you think about it.
As if we were backstage, we were standing in a small room, and we had a beautiful view of a huge hall, in which four long tables with students were arranged one after the other, and a separate table with teachers. A small group of frightened children were huddled around him, and Professor McGonagall was bringing in a wooden stool and a battered hat. I had a wild thought that McGonagall was going to sit on that stool and put on that hat for some reason. I was looking at the students when I heard Pat's words.
"No," he said with a strange, dumbfounded intonation, "it can't be." I turned around. But as it turned out, he wasn't saying this to me, but rather to himself, and he was looking over the heads of the crowd of kids at the teacher's table. "No," he said again, firmly, and shook his head as if to ward off a nightmare. I followed his gaze. N-yes… Apparently, Pat, using the method of exceptions, identified his parent among the teachers. Pat was looking at a thin man in a black robe, with a sickly sallow face, a hooked nose, and greasy black hair. I wonder if he knows there's such a thing as shampoo. He looked, to put it mildly, unfriendly. Is this my friend's father?
Like Pat, I wanted to shake my head and say, "No. It can't be."
And then the hat… She began to sing. Pat started and looked at her in surprise. I also decided to listen.
The hat sang of the old glory days, when it was still on the head of a certain Godric Gryffindor, and how Hogwarts was founded.
Then she announced the selection criteria for each faculty. As I understand it, Gryffindor is for the brave and courageous, Ravenclaw is for the smart, Slytherin is for the cunning and ambitious, and Hufflepuff is for everyone else. Then this hat was put on each of the handful of first-year students in turn, and she announced the diagnosis. When the children were finished, Dumbledore got up from his seat. The students immediately fell silent, although they still looked at each other in surprise.
"I'm just saying that the assignment process isn't over yet" he said, waving away the whispers in the hall "two more new students are joining us this year. For various reasons, they were unable to get into Hogwarts in time, but I hope that the sixth-year students will be happy to welcome new students to their class. Please, Mr. Potter."
My stomach clenched, and I walked over to the rickety stool. It was as if every single person in the room was looking at me.
"Harry Potter" was the only sound in the room.… "... the same one..."
Couldn't all this have been done quietly? They were in McGonagall's office for more than an hour! At that moment, a hat was placed on my head, and the hall was hidden from me behind a black underside.
"Hmm," said a thoughtful voice in my head, "yes… Very interesting… and where do you want me to send you? Hmmm… Maybe Slytherin? You could be great…"
"What do I care about greatness?" I thought.
"You refuse?" the hat was surprised "hmmm… Oh, well. Landmarks are already defined, although if you were younger… Everything is clear here. GRYFFINDOR!"
The hat was taken off my head, and I was met with an uproar of applause, especially from the table on the far left. I definitely need to go there — I thought, and still in a bit of shock, I went there and sat down in an empty seat. I've never been so happy before.
"Welcome!" Someone next to me exclaimed, and I realized it was an old cellmate of mine.
She had a badge pinned on her uniform — she was a prefect. Remus, who had apparently just arrived at the school, was smiling reassuringly at me. But through all the greetings, I was most interested in the fate of my friend. He walked up to the stool rather jauntily, squinting at the table with the teachers, and they put a hat on him, too. She was silent for a long time, and then she said,
"Slytherin." Lupin's smile turned sour. There was a rather cool round of applause, and a slightly disheveled Pat realized that he had to go in the opposite direction from me. At that moment, we were separated by no more than two tables. Pat sat down in the empty seat and gave me a scowl that said clearly, " We're in deep trouble, buddy.