Chapter 36: The Leaky Cauldron
"Bye Mum, bye Dad," I said, hugging each of them goodbye. We were standing in the street right outside the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. Though I knew Mum and Dad couldn't see it, they knew that it was there, remembering from the last time they'd come with me. This time however, they made no indications that they wanted to follow me inside.
"Have a good term, sweetie," Mum replied as Dad heaved my trunk out of the car, parked against the sidewalk. "Here's some money for your books and a little for your birthday in a month," she said, handing me a stack of Muggle money.
They'd already given me my birthday money when we were in France, but I didn't say anything. This wasn't a case of them forgetting, this was them trying to justify to themselves why they were just dropping me off on the sidewalk instead of coming in and meeting with the Weasleys, and why they'd spent the past month avoiding eye contact with me.
"Thanks Mum, thanks Dad," I said, taking the money and my trunk. "I'll write when I get to school."
"Don't worry honey, you don't have to," Mum replied. I noticed the panic in her eyes, probably at the thought of having owls flying around her house again this year.
I smiled sadly. "Ok, I'll write you if I need to then," I said. "I'll see you next summer." When neither one of them mentioned Christmas, I knew I would be staying at school again this year. I turned and wheeled my trunk towards the door to the Leaky Cauldron.
When I got to the door, I turned to watch as my parents drove away back to their lives of dentistry, not even waiting to see that I got inside safely, or making sure that Ron's family was actually here.
I allowed one tear to slide down my cheek. Somehow, it felt like I had lost them this summer. Though we would never be as close as we had been before Professor McGonagall came calling over two years ago, I'd done the worst damage this summer. I'd driven a wedge between us, ensuring that they would never feel comfortable around me again.
It felt like there was a hole inside me where they used to be, and I was sure it would never be filled. When I finished with school, I would get a job in the wizarding world, and I would probably only see them every once in a while for Christmas or a birthday. Whatever hope I'd had of re-establishing those close family bonds once they adjusted to my having magic was gone. I didn't regret my choices. I just wished I'd had another path open to me.
When I entered the Leaky Cauldron, I found that Ron's family was waiting for me in the bar. I pulled myself together and quickly wiped away my tear. Then, smiling, I approached.
"Ron!" I exclaimed jovially. "How are you? Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, it's good to see you again." I turned to shake each of Ron's parent's hands in turn.
"Yes, hello dear, wonderful to see you too. You had a good summer, I suppose?" Mrs. Weasley asked. I confirmed that I had and then Mrs. Weasley asked Ginny to show me to the room we would be sharing upstairs.
Ginny remained silent as we climbed the stairs to the room. I hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Ginny at the end of last year. Everything had happened so fast after I'd been restored from the petrification and there hadn't been much time.
We arrived at the door to a room at the end of the hallway, room #18, and Ginny pushed it open.
"You can have that bed," she said, pointing to the bed closer to the door. The other was already covered with Ginny's possessions. I dragged my trunk to the end of my bed.
"How are you doing?" I inquired as Ginny hovered uncomfortably in the doorway.
Ginny shrugged. "Okay, I guess," she responded, not looking me in the eye.
"If you want to talk about anything – "
"I'll let you know," Ginny interrupted me, effectively ending the conversation.
I got the message loud and clear. She remained unwilling to talk about what she'd been through. And that was completely reasonable. She'd been through something terrible that very few people could understand. I certainly didn't expect to be able to fully understand it. I just hoped that she was talking to someone, even if it wasn't me.
When we returned downstairs, we decided to split up for the day. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were taking Ginny shopping for her school things, Percy said he had some important things to do, and Fred and George wanted to meet up with Lee Jordan.
Ron informed me that Harry had apparently already left for the day, before he and his family had shown up, so we decided to search for him in Diagon Alley.
"Let's try Madam Malkin's," Ron said. "He might be there; I know his robes are too small to last another year."
I agreed so we started there, but Madam Malkin said he had been in earlier in the week. While we were there, Ron and I got new robes as ours were now too small too.
Next we went to Flourish and Blotts, where we purchased our books, but Harry had already been there too. When we were finished, I had used up all the wizard money I had left, so we stopped at Gringotts to have my Muggle money exchanged for Galleons.
"So, France, huh?" Ron said as we walked down the steps back into the alley to continue our search. "What was that like?"
"It was great!" I said enthusiastically. "I got to see and learn so much. And there was this little bookshop, Librairie: Le Mot Écrit. It was wonderful. I even found a rare copy of Hogwarts: A History in French."
"Of course you'd go on vacation and spend all your time in a bookshop," Ron rolled his eyes.
"Well I didn't spend all my time there," I insisted. "I did other stuff too. And I managed to learn quite a bit of French while I was there as well."
"Well I had a great time in Egypt," Ron declared. "I mean, Percy was a prick and Fred and George were idiots, and Ginny's been off since we've been home, but we got to visit with Bill, and that was pretty cool."
"He's a curse-breaker, right?" I confirmed.
Ron nodded. "They've got this huge dig going, excavating a newly discovered underground tomb. And it's filled with booby traps and things, so Bill goes down first to shut down all the traps before the historians and the archeologists and everyone else goes down."
"That sounds really dangerous," I noted.
"It is," Ron replied excitedly. "Mum hates it, but Bill loves the adventure of it all. She kept trying to convince him to come home and work a desk job at the bank, but he won't have it. Dad says he'll come home once the novelty wears off, but I'm not convinced. If it were me, I'd stay away as long as possible."
"Oh don't say that!" I exclaimed. "It's nice that your mother is worried about him. It's nice that she wants him close to home. He should cherish that, and so should you. And when the time comes, I hope you stick close to home. Having a family that cares is a luxury not everyone has."
"You're right," Ron nodded. "I forget myself sometimes. Good thing Harry wasn't here to hear all that."
Suddenly, I felt awful. Here I was feeling sorry about myself because my parents were a little standoffish of late. Meanwhile, Harry didn't even have a family. Ron was right, it was Harry we should be feeling badly for.
"We should keep looking for him," I said, wanting to forget about our conversation.
Continuing on our way, we checked the apothecary, Potage's Cauldron Shop, and even Ollivander's, not that we expected him to be at that last one, Ron just wanted to purchase his new wand. And Harry wasn't at Eeylops Owl Emporium or at Gambol and Japes. Eventually, Ron and I got tired of searching, so we decided to stop for ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.
We ordered ice cream sundaes and sat outside, watching the crowd passing by on the street. It was relaxing, and after doing a lot of it in France, I'd come to enjoy people watching. After a few minutes, I turned to look in the direction of Quality Quidditch Supplies and saw Harry emerge from the shop.
"Ron, look, it's Harry!" I said, pointing across the Alley.
With minimal difficulty, we were able to flag Harry down and he came over to join us. He ordered an ice cream as well, and then we sat and talked and caught up, mostly with Harry since we hadn't really seen or heard from him since June.
After we'd finished our ice creams, I decided that I wanted to purchase an owl. I had enough money, and I'd decided that I wanted a pet. Harry had Hedwig and Ron had Scabbers, but I didn't have anything. So the three of us headed for the Magical Menagerie, a nearby store that sold all manner of animals.
It was quite cramped inside. The walls were covered with cages, all containing different animals, and they were all being awfully noisy. I immediately walked over to where the owls were being kept, looking at the different birds, hoping that one of them would give me a feeling like it was meant to be my owl.
There was a horned owl that looked a bit too arrogant for me, and a barn owl that looked awfully timid. There was a screech owl making so much noise I was afraid if I purchased it I'd have a headache for the rest of my life. There was a snowy owl, but I didn't want to copy Harry. I was just moving to look at the spotted owl when a loud cry from the other end of the store drew my attention.
It seemed that an animal had managed to get free of it's cage and had jumped onto Ron's head. The shopkeeper was trying her best to pull the animal away, but it was putting up quite the fight, clearly not wanting to go back into it's cage. Curiously, I moved forward as Ron finally separated himself from the animal and ran out of the store, Harry running after him.
"And who's this?" I asked, stepping forward cautiously. The animal was now curled up in a ball on the front counter purring contentedly. I could clearly tell, now that the commotion had died down, that it was a beautiful ginger-colored cat.
"This is Crookshanks," the shopkeeper huffed, attempting to pick the cat up and stuff it back into its cage. Crookshanks however, seemed to have no intention of returning to captivity and clung to the counter with all its might.
"May I?" I asked, reaching out a hand.
The shopkeeper backed off, nodding to me to say it was alright. I reached a little further and placed my hand on Crookshanks' head, pausing for a moment and then scratching just a little behind the ears. Crookshanks purred even louder.
Looking over at the owls and then back at Crookshanks, I made a snap decision. Crookshanks was alone, unwanted, and clearly unhappy. He didn't want to go back into his cage, and I couldn't blame him. I wouldn't want to live in a cage either. And I didn't really need an owl. I wasn't going to be sending my parents any mail, the Daily Prophet got delivered by a delivery owl, and in the summer I could always use Errol to return messages that Ron sent me.
"I'll take him," I declared.
Ron wasn't too happy when I exited the shop with Crookshanks in my arms instead of an owl cage by my side. It was none of Ron's business who I wanted as my pet, and Crookshanks would be sleeping in my dormitory, so his worry for Scabbers' safety was completely unnecessary.
Crookshanks made me happy, and that's what was most important.