phase six
"Welcome to the British Isles."
14th June, 2013 - Mardell Circle, Somerville, Massachusetts, US
*POP*
A loud pop cut through the silent night of Mardell Circle in Spring Hill, Somerville. At the alley between Donna the Florist and Tootsie's Diner. Looking closer you would barely see two figures appear out of thin air.
"NICK!" Alura hushed, looking at her surroundings. "I thought you said we'd be inside Donna's?"
"Well, sorry. Misdirected." Nick smiled apologetically and Alura playfully swatted his arm.
"You're lucky we didn't land in some dumpster!" Alura commented. "Let's go find ourselves a cab." Nick nodded and they walked out of the alley, into a very silent residence.
"Where are we gonna find a cab here?" Alura asked as they proceeded to walk out of Mardell Circle.
"We could walk to Spring Street and and call for one. Tell him to pick us up near Freya's" Nick suggested.
"54 Spring Street right?" Alura double checked.
"Yeah." Nick nodded and Alura proceeded to dial for a cab.
—
15th June, 2013 - Katherson Residence, Hampstead, New Hampshire, US
"They're gone? What do you mean Hermione?" Calithea asked with confusion.
"They… they went…" Unable to continue verbally, she weakly held up the letter left by the twins to her mother.
Calithea quickly scanned through the piece of paper, adding her own tears to the collection stained on the paper.
"Oh Hermione." Calithea sighed and wrapped her daughter in a hug again.
"I… I couldn't stop them! They were gone, just poof gone!" Hermione sobbed uncontrollably. "What if they ran into some dangerous cult, or if they find them? Will they like them? Oh my! I could be found? Will they forgive me? Will the…" Hermione continued to ramble as she shivered in her mother's arms.
"Shh…" Calithea interrupted her ramble and Hermione quickly quietened down.
"Who knew about you leaving?" Calithea.
"No- Nobody." Hermione choked out.
"They probably are already long gone to some train, Hermione. They can take care of themselves. Okay?" Calithea tried to comfort her daughter, even if she was bloody terrified herself.
"They're just fourteen! Nearly fifteen." Hermione exclaimed.
"When you were thirteen you decided to go on a prison break, on the back of some mystical animal. And almost got yourself killed trying to solve some murder mystery when you're twelve." Calithea pointed out.
"Well… I had adults helping me… and friends… They're on their own!" Hermione tried to argue.
"We'll figure this out okay? Go take a shower, freshen yourself up and your mind and we'll proceed rationally okay?" Calithea suggested and Hermione nodded, it's always good to think rationally.
"Okay Mom." Hermione nodded and slowly stood up, and dragged herself to the bathroom.
Only then did Calithea Granger allowed herself to cry for her grandchildren.
—
14th June, 2013 - Boston Logan International Airport, Boston, US
"Thank you." Alura thanked the driver who dropped the two teenagers off Boston Logan International Airport with indefinite confusion and got tipped quite generously.
"You're very welcome." The driver replied and drove off into the night.
"Here we go." Alura sighed and jogged up to catch up with her twin brother, who secretly conjured four suitcases.
"Our flight is one thirty tonight. We'll check in and get ourselves a sandwich or something, and some cookies for our flight."
"Sure. What about customs?" Alura asked.
"We're wizards, Alura." Nick whispered into her ear.
"Never knew you to be a rule-breaker." Alura raised her eyebrows and smirked.
"For customs, yeah." Nick replied smugly.
"And our 'boarding school' documents?" Alura checked.
"All ready." Nick replied.
"Cool." Alura said and dragged Nick to the long queue at the United counter. When it was their turn, Alura and Nick placed their 'baggages' on the belt, which will disappear in six hours.
"Hello, kids. How may I help?" The counter lady, Rosé greeted.
"We're here for fight UAL 2567." Nick replied.
"Okay, flight from Boston to London Heathrow?" Rosé double checked.
"Yes." Alura nodded and passed the lady their passports.
"Ah, twins?" Rosé asked.
"Yeah, fraternal." Nick replied.
"Okay, since you're not of age, we'll need your parent consent letter." Rosé requested.
"Yep." Alura replied confidently and passed the 'letter' to Rosé.
The twins held their breath as Rosé checked the letter carefully, before scanning it through a machine. They watched Rosé perform each step intently, almost anticipating a failure.
"All good!" Rosé finally announced gleefully and the twins let out their long held breath. "Here are your boarding passes, your gate is to be announced. I have allocated you two to seats 35A and 35B, so you are sitting alone with no strangers." Rosé passed them back their documents and passports, along with their boarding passes. "Have a safe flight!" Rosé wished the twins and they happily waved the lady a goodbye.
"So Nicky," Alura said sweetly. "How are we to skip customs?"
"Do you wanna pee?" Nick asked suggestively and Alura quickly caught up with his thoughts.
"Oh yeah, I really need to go to the bathroom." Alura agreed and the two went into the bathroom.
As Alura entered the ladies' room, she quickly shut the door an casted a 'notice-me-not' charm. With a whisper of 'evanesco', she disappeared into thin air, but didn't exit the stall without casting a muffliato charm.
When Alura walked out of the bathroom, she quickly spotted a floating leaf gesturing her over. As she prodded her twin brother, they proceeded to cross the customs without anyone knowing.
"We gotta scan our boarding passes there, so nobody notice we just disappear." Nick reminded and they walked towards the gates separating the departure hall and the custom queue.
A man stationed at the gates watched as two gates opened curiously while no one passed through, walking up to check if the gates have malfunctioned, a weird gush of wind swept his face, causing tears to roll don involuntarily. A moment after his eyes returned to normal, although bloodshot, the queue for the gates to the customs returned normal, it was as if nothing had happened.
"Hey Roy you alright?" His colleague came over and patted his shoulder.
"Yeah, must't have enough sleep this morning." The man, Roy answered.
"Get yourself an espresso man." His colleague commented and Roy set off to the Starbucks near by.
"You know it's funny." Alura whispered as they crept through security disillusioned. "Watching all these people queue for security, when we just walk past them like VIP I mean, we're breaking the law." Alura said suggestively.
"Shut up Lou." Nick said annoyed.
"You know I never." Alura nudged her twin they climbed over the security belts carefully, not before casting another 'muffliato'. They jumped down the machines into the staff area and crept into the bathroom once more.
"Finite." Alura whispered under her breath. The image of her existence slowly resurfaced into reality as she flushed the toilet to mask over the little display of magic within a muggle crowd, albite the privacy within a bathroom stall. She walked out as if nothing happened, though the cleaning lady in a white uniform did cast a few weird glances at her.
"Hey." Nick greeted as they walked to the large boarding notice to scout for their boarding gate.
"Gate A36." Alura pointed out and they walked towards the mini target in silence. They picked up a few bottles of water and some cookies to share on the flight. Once you had had Calithea Katherson (Granger)'s Cooking, there is no turning back.
The twins sat at the gate, fiddling their own devices in silence, waiting to board their plane to London Heathrow. That us until Alura blurted out a question.
"What if Mom decided to come find us?"
"Maybe she would, yeah. But then she'd also had to face her past which she desperately tried to avoid for fifteen years. We will get grounded, yes, but there is more chance we'll never get let out of the house alone with wards all over the house than her facing her past." Nick analysed absentmindedly, while his eyes stayed on an article he was reading intently.
"Smart arse." Alura commented and continued to read through some juicy twitter wars.
"Flight UAL 2567, now boarding. Please queue up and proceed in orderly fashion." The PA lady announced clearly as everyone at the gate stood up and hurried over to the queue, trying to get ahead.
"Nick! Come on, everyone's queuing already." Alura urged but Nick just sat there.
"Yeah, let them. We will get on the plane anyways, this is just an illusion. We can sit and wait, or we can stand and wait for 15 minutes. We won't be boarding first anyway, we're economy." Nick replied unbothered. Hated to admit that her brother is right (yet again), Alura sat down grumpily as Nicholas continued his reading.
"Okay, can we board now?" Alura asked, clearly irritated.
"Fine." Nicholas sighed and stood up, following her grumpy sister to the queue.
—
15th June, 2013 - Katherson Residence, Hampstead, New Hampshire, US
Hermione stepped out of the shower, more refreshed physically, yes, but her mind is still only half awoke. She quickly wrapped a towel around herself and went out of the steam filled bathroom to get herself a change of clothes.
She slowly changed into a pair of random grey joggers and a white camisole, her eyes bloodshot when she caught the reflection of herself in her vanity mirror. She had never seen herself so utterly broken, so utterly worried and terrified before, and the guilt, the regret around her, is almost visible as a strong black cloud dragged behind her. She gently pushed one of her damp curls out of her face, to see her tear stained face. Tears were still running down her face absentmindedly, and she could almost make out the colour in her mind. The darkest of the blacks, filled with tiny spots of dusty grey. She couldn't bring herself to fathom the future, the near future of what could possibly happen.
Hermione Jean Granger hated being out of control.
Sighing, she walked out of her bedroom and forced herself to walk down the stairs. Hearing her mother fumbling around the kitchen, she smiled faintly for the first time in, in so long. She smiled as Hermione Jean Granger for the first time in forever.
"A cuppa?" Calithea pushed a cup of chamomile tea across the island as Hermione slowly sat on the stool. She made sure she didn't even look at her comfortable couch, she just wouldn't be able to resist wallowing in her own pity party till the end of the world, slumping against the comfortable cushions.
"Thanks." Hermione muttered.
"How much do you think they know?" Calithea asked quietly.
Hermione lifted up her head to meet her mother's eyes for the first time since her discovery and saw the same bloodshot eyes piercing through her.
"They discovered my alias when they were starting Ilvermony." Hermione revealed. "And started to pester me to tell them about their dad even earlier."
"And you haven't told them?" Calithea assumed.
"No, never. I wasn't brave enough to." Hermione confessed guiltily.
"You know, Hermione. They're more like you than you know. The curiosity to solving and knowing the truth of everything, even if it hurts." Calithea pointed out and Hermione smiled.
"Yeah, and so much braver than I am, just like him." Hermione agreed, grinning like a fool.
"You clearly love him so much, till this day. I never pestered you about his identity, but why Hermione, I never understood." Calithea said truthfully.
"He, he had already been through so much, the war… everything. I'd rather carry this alone, rather than giving him another expectation after everything, after he thought he could finally be free, and be selfish for once." Hermione answered, her eyes focused on her teaspoon stirring her cup of tea. Taking note of Hermione's reluctance, Calithea sat down silently and enjoyed the quiet company.
—
15th June, 2013 - Heathrow Airport, London, UK
"Welcome to the United Kingdom! Here we offer extraordinary opportunities for your exploration! We have over…" The PA system advertised as the passengers of flight UAL 2567 walked through the arrival hall.
"We're here." Alura announced excitedly as she dragged her twin brother through the arrival and out into the bus stops.
"Let's get to Diagon Alley, it's where the magic community of Britain is." Nick suggested.
"And where do you think we can access it?" Alura questioned.
"I don't know, honestly. But you can see everything up in the sky." Nick prompted.
"Our brooms." Alura gasped in realisation. "Smart-arse." She muttered additionally.
"What was that?" Nicholas asked smugly.
"Shut up, James." Alura shooed, her face redder than tomato.
"Touché, Lilith." Nicholas playfully flicked her hair and ran from his sister. You never want to deal with an angry Alura Lilith Katherson.
"Come on! We have places to go and things to do!" Alura yelled and urged Nicholas to stop. "And this way!" Alura pointed to her left where Nicholas sighed and ran back to catch up with his sister.
"You know Mom would be even angrier than ever if she found out we used brooms in the process." Nicholas stated.
"Well, Mom was always irrationally terrified of brooms, and flying. Our love for it though, must come paternally." Alura shrugged and entered a wild bush. Making sure no one's watching, she took out their brooms from the moleskin pouch, and passed one to her brother.
"Agreed." Nicholas said and mounted his broom in between the wild bushes some distance away from Heathrow Airport.
"Evanesco." The twins muttered simultaneously and two figures disappeared into thin air, where a gush of wind from nowhere had a squirrel bolt out of its hiding place.
"Well!" Alura yelled as they zipped through the air, carefully avoiding a flock of birds in the early morning. "How are we to get to London?"
"Well, just fly east!" Nicholas yelled back and zipped his way into the midday. Alura suddenly felt a whoosh of wind slap her face harshly and yelled.
"GODDAMN YOU NICHOLAS JAMES!" Alura cursed, bending her body forward to catch up with him. "IT IS NOT A FREAKING RACE! NOR IS THERE A SNITCH!"
After about thirty minutes of flying, and passive racing, the twins began to see London in their very own eyes. The Buckingham Palace and the Big Ben underneath them, as if they were viewing a close up satellite map. A floating red pen allowed Alura to locate her brother as she slowly flew to his side.
"Let's rendezvous about here, raise your red pen when you're back. Maybe we could split and hover around the city and scout for Diagon Alley."
"Signum." Nicholas muttered and a blue smoke hovered around them. "Let's meet around here in thirty." He said and flew into the clouds.
Nicholas zipped around London in two circles, overviewing all the way from Kensington Palace to Tower of London. He made note to squint his eyes to see through the magical barriers, but the only thing he was able to see were trees, trees, and indefinite buildings.
On his way back, he flew slower this time and squinted his eyes even more, but all he could see was an additional house near St. Paul's Cathedral with a funny looking roof. Sighing in defeat, he zipped back towards the rendezvous point, only to find her sister smirking like a fool.
"MACUSA should definitely take note of how magical Britain camouflaged themselves in hindsight." Alura greeted.
"Lou, you found Diagon Alley?" Nicholas asked in wonder and Alura nodded.
"It's not exactly an alley, even though the narrowness of it does fit its name, it'd be better named as Diagon Circle." Alura mused.
"Wait it's all around London?" Nicholas asked.
"Well I couldn't see it at first for a few times, and I flew higher to get a more all round image, that's when I see the circle of magic when I squinted my eyes. You won't believe amount of magic surrounding such a big city not at one point, but all across the city. I'd not be surprised if a no-maj accidentally discovered magic without knowing, imagine seeing a random broom floating in mid air in front of a diner waiting for its owner?" Alura ranted enthusiastically.
"Well I suppose there's an entry point?" Nicholas suggested.
"There is one little gap where the circle broke." Alura replied and pushed her red pen forward, gesturing Nicholas to follow her.
They flew and descended slowly in the air, only coming to a stop as they flew pas Hyde Park, near the British Museum. Alura pointed a the small black building where the circle of magic halted slightly.
"That's where the floating things stopped." Alura pointed with her pen and Nicholas squinted his eyes, most of the flying objects, like wrapped packages and zaps of coloured lights from shellwork stopped behind a black dot and continued thereafter.
"Entry point." Nicholas concluded and descended towards the black building, which slowly became one of the most haunted looking buildings he has ever seen. Most of the black paint has peeled off, revealing some structure within. Some loosely hanged signs were dangling off the walls of the building, so loose a mild gush of wind might be able to blow it off. Cobwebs covered most of the building, and all kinds of graffiti were seen on the walls. A portrait of a random woman with fangs, words of profanity, random splashes of colour… you name it, they have it. Looking around for any no-majs around, the two quickly muttered 'Finite' under their breaths and reappeared in reality.
"How is that the London Government never tried to tear it down?" Nicholas looked at the building in disgust.
"Repello muggletum does the trick." Alura landed and surveyed the building with interest. "So now that we've found Diagon Alley, what are we to do." She queried.
"Well, let's sort out our clues in a cafe nearby, mark up this place in our tablet and decide our next move." Nicholas suggested and Alura nodded. She quickly took out her tablet and bookmarked their present location, before scouting for a nearby restaurant.
"Starbucks or Costa?" Alura asked.
"Starbucks. I need an Americano, or I'll faint with the jet lag." Nicholas confessed and Alura led their way to the coffee shop.
"We could start with our big clues. Like the photo of Mom in Hogwarts, or we could go to the British Ministry of Magic for the Public Records and scout for anyone with the middle name James." Alura proposed as they passed through the busy Charing Cross Road.
"What about we find Mom's name first? If we know her real name, which includes Jean, we might be able to find some of her friends here and get more answers." Nicholas suggested.
"That could work." Alura agreed and they turned left into Starbucks. Seeing as it is a weekday, spaces were still available in early noon, even though the queue is extremely long, filled with office ladies and businessmen. Pushing themselves through the queue, thy quickly found a private seat a the corner and settled down. Alura placed her tablet on the table and Nicholas started to open up their photos and documents on the screen, and took out his own tablet to create a second desktop for all the information.
"We can also find out who Mom's roommate was, she'll be our best bet in more clues." Alura put forward. Nicholas touched the window with the picture of their Mom and a blonde girl with a purple bandana smiling happily outside on the grounds of Hogwarts.
"She's a witch obviously, so online advertising would be futile. What about newspapers? Like Enchanters' Gazette." Nicholas advanced.
"That's the North American publication. What about here?" Alura dejected.
"What about, we finish here, and find our way into Diagon Alley. We need to change our dragots and dollars into galleons and pounds first anyways." Nicholas devised and was quickly agreed by Alura, by which she slurped the rest of her vanilla cold brew and packed their tablets back into their pouch. Shuffling themselves out of the crowded Starbucks, they returned to Charing Cross Road and walked back to the wobbly old building.
"Are you sure it's here?" Nicholas asked again, trying to convince himself he wouldn't have to go through this building.
"Only one way to find out." Alura said and pushed the door open.
"Ew." Alura shook her hands after opening the door, her fingers now laced with cobwebs. "Scourgify."
Loud noises echoed through the hallway as they proceeded carefully with their wands out. The noise crescendoed as they ventured into the hallway, eventually met with a much more sturdier and cleaner mahogany door with a bulky brass handle.
"Sounds like a bar or a club. But just after noon?" Nicholas pressed his ear to the door.
"Could be a ridiculously crowded diner?" Alura added.
"Okay, no turning back." Nicholas seemed for approval from his sister before pushed the handle down and pushing open the door.
Behind the door was nothing they had ever seen. Dishes and drinks were floating around as people ducked their heads skilfully to avoid getting hit with one of them. The bar was crowded with men playing exploding snap and chess, while the bartender with a crooked smile and an equally crooked back kept the drinks of his customers running. The sound of coins, or knuts clashing with the bottom of a copper bucket kept going, complimentary with the puffs of people flooing away and flooing in through the small row of fireplaces at the back of the diner. As the twins turned their heads to the right, several customers descended from a wide sturdy stairway painted dully, some with with their lounge robes still on.
"A motel?" Alura looked at those people curiously.
"More like an inn." Nicholas supplied.
"Huh." Alura continued to look around, until a wizard approached them.
"Welcome to the Leaky Cauldron! How can we help?" The wizard welcomed jovially.
"We're just um, looking around." Alura replied and the wizard took his leave.
"Actually." Nicholas stopped the wizard. "Do you know where we can change the currency?"
"Ah! Travellers? French? You don't really have an accent though." The wizard realised and slapped his own head.
"We're from USA." Alura replied with a forced smile.
"North Americans." The wizard mused. "Well, you can change your currency at Gringotts in Diagon Alley of course!"
"How do we access it?" Alura asked.
"Well you can always floo in here, like them." The wizard pointed. "And then go through the back door where you'll see a brick wall. Start from the brick with a slightly different colour, three up two down." He instructed.
"How about apparition?"
"Well, you gotta know the insides to apparate eh?" The wizard said.
"Okay, thanks a lot." Alura replied and quickly dragged his brother through the crowd and towards the backdoor.
"I'm going to have a migraine if we don't get out of here fast." Alura complained.
"I doubt that Diagon Alley would be much different, though we can hide in a book store, and at least the people are moving." Nicholas dejected.
"Ugh!" Alura exasperated and pushed the backdoor open, leaving the chaotic diner behind them. They quickly spotted the slightly burnt brick which has slightly deteriorated because it was being poked for some many times.
"Three up, two down." Alura muttered and navigated her wand through her reminder. When she reached the last brick, she heard weird noises started to come out of nowhere, until the brick wall rearranged itself slowly into an archway.
"You'd think they use gears." Nicholas marvelled at the amazing transfiguration.
"Come on!" Alura then dragged her twin brother into the crowded street filled with colourful shops and all sorts of advertisements. Floating balloons, floating banners, a weird joke shop with a hilariously large figure of a man and his tall hat doing a courtesy too everyone that passed by…
"There's Gringotts." Nicholas pointed out when they passed a crooked building with a marble exterior. Three promotional goblin figures on the balcony of the building holding a sign that read Gringotts in English, French, Bulgarian, Japanese and of course, Goblish.
"Goblin ran? Must be a sovereignty. I thought there weren't many large goblin populations in the world anymore." Nicholas queried curiously as they walked up the stairs.
"Well, we thought lots of things, that turned out to be untrue. That's what we were here for anyways." Alura replied and pushed the bulky doors open, revealing themselves a lavishly decorated bank.
The long reception hall accented with gold columns is lined with marble counters, each stationed with a goblin. The black and white checkered tiles amplified the sound of shoes colliding against the floor, alerting the goblins of every movement.
The twins puffed their chests and walked towards the nearest counter, where the goblin in charge is burying himself with stacks and stacks of paperwork.
"Excuse me." Alura asked politely and the goblin groaned irritatedly. While he was fishing himself out of the stacks of paper, Nicholas whispered in his sister's ear.
"Don't show your teeth."
"Welcome to Gringotts, what do you want?" The goblin asked indifferently.
"Thank you, we wound like to change our dragots and dollars into galleons and pounds." Alura stated clearly and smiled without showing her teeth.
"Very well. The change rate is 1 galleon to 5.2 dragots, the change rate between galleons and pounds is 1 galleon to 4.19 pounds, and the muggle change rate is 1 pound to 1.38 dollars. Our service charge is 2 galleons." The goblin listed out and Alura started to fiddle within her moleskin pouch.
"Here." She dropped the bag full of dragots onto the counter. "Can we please have a third of the dragots exchanged into pounds please?" Alura requested and the goblin grunted in acknowledgement.
"Please wait." The goblin instructed and hopped off his counter. He then went through a hidden door within the walls and left the twins standing.
"Well, that was interesting. How did you know the showing teeth thing?" Alura asked.
"When Mom used to make us read everything and you usually snuck off to do God knows what, there were actually books about elfish and goblish customs." Nicholas replied pointedly and Alura smirked.
"Well if I hadn't snuck off, we wouldn't know that Jean Katherson's an alias."
"Arse." Nicholas dismissed.
"Ahem." The goblin cleared its throat to get the twins' attention, who quickly recollected themselves and smiled at the goblin.
"Your galleons." The goblin placed a heavy bagful of gold on the counter, creating a strong thud.
"And your pounds." The goblin placed another bagful of cash on the counter. "We have taken another charge of 4 sickles for this bag. Thank you." The goblin added and politely dismissed them from the counter.
"Come on Lou." Nicholas tugged his sister after she had safely placed their cash into her moleskin pouch.
Walking out of the bank and back into the crowded street, the twins shuffled through the crowd, trying to explore the magical district while they kept an eye for clues, like any sign of the local newspaper, where to get extra supplied, photos, etc.
As they walked past the apothecary, a man with a cap and a dark hoodie stared at them with a mixed expression. As Nicholas was looking around, the man caught his eye and he quickly pulled his sister closer to him protectively, which she quickly shrugged off after a few seconds.