Heyyyyyy it's another chapter wow. I've done the former two chapters in the same day and I'm still starting another one? Mmmmm this might be a problem…. Nah
(edited May 1st 2020)
Harry's POV
Cornelius Fudge, A.K.A the minister of magic awaits us outside of the knight bus. Which is either really bad or pretty good, and with my luck? Bad.
Before the door to the door to the knight bus can conveniently close and keep the whole 'using a fake name' thing a secret, Fudge greets me "Harry, come inside, we need to talk… Who's this?"
Stan's questioning protests about my name follow us through the door as we are led by the minister to a table in the pub. Percy is fidgeting more than usual, glancing nervously at Fudge. He's obviously worried about the strange-man who knows my name. I brush my hand against his, and look him in the eyes, trying to convey It's fine, I know who this is. I've decided that telling him that he's the minister of magic, in charge of the laws that I just broke this afternoon won't be reassuring.
Fudge starts, almost as if I hadn't just broken one of the most important laws "Harry, would it be okay if you stay at the leaky cauldron for the remainder of the summer? Of course your aunt and uncle will take you back too, for next summer… they want you to stay for the holidays though" he pauses momentarily and gives percy just enough time to interrupt him from whatever he was going to say next.
"I'm sorry," he says defensively "but who are you? And why are you here? How do you know so much about Harry?" he pauses, probably to think of more questions but Fudge interrupts him with a laugh.
"So sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier" he starts "I'm Cornelius Fudge, the minister of magic. You are?" he trails off, staring pointedly at Percy.
"I'm Percy" Percy says, extending his hand to the minister "Harry's brother". They regard each other for a second before I interrupt.
"Um… We're just going to ignore how I… I blew up my aunt and did all of that underage magic… I broke the law.. Shouldn't I be-" I abruptly cut off as Percy kicks me under the table. Oh yeah… suggesting a bad punishment really isn't my best idea.
"Oh, that?" The minister says carelessly, " we obliviated her, so no harm, right? It was an honest mistake. We've all been there, I'm sure. Don't worry about it, Harry." He raises his voice and yells for the innkeeper "Could you get a room for these two? Thanks!" The innkeeper nods and Fudge continues "You two will be staying here until the school year. There's only one rule for you two, you can't, under any circumstance, leave the alleyway. The muggle world is dangerous and we don't want anyone getting hurt, now do we? Consider it a slap on the wrist, as your punishment."
Abruptly, the minister stands to leave. "It's getting late boys. You should probably head to bed soon". He walks out the door and it closes with a loud creak behind him. We stand and make our way to the bar to ask about our room before walking up the two flights of stairs and locking ourselves into the room for the night.
The room has two twin beds, one on each side of the room and a wooden nightstand in between them, holding a lamp. The walls have peeling blue wallpaper, and the wooden floorboards creak as I drag my trunk across them. Percy immediately throws himself onto the nearest bed, flopping dramatically onto it and sighing "I'm sooo tired. Let's go to bed right now at" he pauses to look at the clock "nine-twenty-three, like good thirteen-year-olds, just like the minister says" he gushes. The sarcasm is so thick I think it might catch him when I push him off the bed, which I do, laughing quietly.
"Oh, hush" I childe him jokingly "We can wait here for Hedwig to come so I can send some letters to Hermione and Ron. Then we'll go to bed".
"Ughh fineee" he whines. He flops dramatically again, banging his head against the floor and muttering 'oww'. I sit at the desk on the other side of the room and pull out two pieces of parchment, a quill, and a half-filled bottle of ink. I shake the bottle, then remove the top and dip my quill. I begin to write;
Dear Ron and Family,
I'm writing to you from the Leaky Cauldron. I ran away from home along with my brother, Percy. Everything is OK, just a little misunderstanding. Hopefully we can see eachother soon.
Sincerely, Harry
Percy sits up from his spot on the floor and reads the letter over my shoulder, squinting slightly. After a moment he complains "you should have let it be a surprise that I was here. We could have played some sort of fun prank..." I shove him.
"No, we're not going to do that silly" he sulks "Mrs. Weasley will probably be worried enough as it is. There's no reason to give her a heart attack."
He sighs then, "Yeah, you're right. Can't be giving anyone a heart attack." He hops up to sit on the desk next to where I'm writing and it creaks dangerously under his weight. Hedwig appears at the window when I'm halfway done Hermione's letter. I give the letters to her and she flies out the window.
"So, how does she know where they are?" Percy questions.
I hum contemplatively before responding "Magic, I guess… I've actually never asked"
Percy continues "Because, like… Carrier pigeons, the ones that carry letters were all specific to a certain place, and would fly there because they can always find their 'home'" He puts the last word in finger-quotes "But owls don't know how to 'home' and Hedwig really only searches out certain people" he hunches over pensively.
"I bet we could ask someone at the owlery tomorrow," I tell him.
He nods, then starts and asks "But are we allowed to go? The minister said that we couldn't leave the alley."
"Yeah, the owlery is in Diagon Alley, the alley is behind the pub" He lets out a long ohhh and slides off the desk.
"Sounds shady" he jokes and I move to poke him with my quill. He doges my attack and I stand, shaking my head. We head off to bed, and Percy sleeps in his clothes. I take a mental note to buy him some pajamas tomorrow and then roll into bed. As I fall into sleep I can hear Percy rolling around in his bed, something that usually means I have to deal with a tired Percy in the morning accompanied by complaints of 'I was thinking'. After such a long day, darkness engulfs me quickly.
The next morning Percy and I sleep late. It's the first time I've done that all summer and I relish in the peaceful morning sounds that come faintly from the pub and alleyway below us. Hedwig had brought two response letters last night, one from the Weasleys, hoping to meet us for lunch at the pub. The second was from Hermione, saying that she was coming to buy her school supplies in three days and that we could meet up then. I stand, giving into responsibility, and poke Percy in the small of his back. He jolts awake, which is quite different than how he usually wakes, mumbling and groaning. His wild eyes meet mine and he relaxes. He pulls himself out of the tangled sheets on his bed and groans unintelligibly before walking into the bathroom adjacent to our room. I busy myself straightening the sheets on our beds and pull out a few Galleons and the key to my- our vault at Gringotts. I relish quickly in the fact that I have someone to share all of these things with, before once again busying myself with cleaning up the room.
Percy exits the bathroom looking far more refreshed. His eyes sparkle and he ruffles my hair as he walks by me. "You know, you don't have to clean up the room, right?"
"Yeah I know" I pause "I guess I'm a bit of a clean freak. Besides, it makes it easier for the staff."
"Yeah sure" he says affectionately "c'mon. I wanna see that alley" We walk downstairs and I lead Percy to the back of the pub. I count the bricks on the wall before tapping one with my wand. A spark of pride flares in my chest as I hear his awed gasp. Immediately he runs through the opening and he stands, in the middle of the cobbled road, staring at the tall magical buildings. His eyes sparkle in awe. I walk up to him and drag him to the side, out of the way of the oncoming foot traffic.
He leans against the wall and breathes "wow" he says.
"Yeah," I agree "It really is amazing, isn't it"
"I mean- I expected… This is more- just…" He's at a loss for words as he stutters excitably, gesturing wildly.
"C'mon," I say "there's a really good pastry shop over that way" I say gesturing to the left "Let's get some breakfast".
We walk to the store and get two jam filled pastries, spending the remainder of the pocket change I had on my person. We wander down the street, with Percy pressing his face against the glass windows of nearly every shop we pass like an excitable five-year-old. We go window shopping for the remainder of the morning, wandering through pet emporiums and broom stores. I had to drag Percy out of the potion-ingredient store before the rancid smell inside killed us both. By the time I dragged him out of the alley it was almost midday, when we were supposed to meet Ron in the pub for lunch.
We waited at a table relatively close to the door to the pub for the family to arrive. We had ordered a basket of fries for the table and were snacking on them as we waited. Mrs. Weasley burst through the door and nearly suffocated me and Percy in a hug, the rest of the family right behind her. Everyone stood by the table awkwardly as Mrs. Weasley squeezed the breath out of me and my brother.
When she lets go, I hold my hand out and introduce my brother. "Everyone, this is my twin brother Percy".
"Hey" he said, shyly. Everyone else introduced themselves and everything seemed to go smoothly. Percy and the twins bonded over lunch in hushed tones where I caught snatches of words like 'explosion' and 'pranks' which I definitely wasn't concerned about. He also talked about his time in the U.S. a bit more. Apparently, he had been going to this summer camp and staying with a kind lady named Sally during the school year. After lunch, which Percy and I insisted on adding to our room bill, we wandered back out into the alley, specifically in search of Gringotts bank for money to buy school supplies. At the counter I handed my key over to one of the goblins at the counter who Percy was eyeing suspiciously.
"Hold up" the goblin commands as we make to leave "You're Perseus Potter?" my brother nods "It's from Lady H". He hands Percy a slip of paper. We walk away from the counter and follow the Weasleys to the opening to the caverns. Discreetly, Percy slips the note into his pocket. The goblin waiting in front of the gaping hole in the wall holds out his hand and I place my key into it. They usher us into the cart with the Weasleys and once everything is secure we take-off at brake-neck speed, zooming through the dark tunnels.
Everyone shivers when we pass under a stream of cold water and Percy jolts, seeming firstly a little too dry, but soon a little too wet. Poor guy, probably went through a weird part of the waterfall. The cart continues to speed onwards and I see Percy lean away from the yawning, seemingly infinite, darkness below us. Ron, meanwhile, leans over the edge like a professional and empties the contents of his stomach into the darkness.
Suddenly, the cart stopped and everyone was thrown forwards. Percy and multiple other occupants of the cart groaned loudly and Mrs. Weasley spilled out of the cart. The goblin palmed her key and opened the door to a vault piled with little coins, far fewer than the ones I've seen in my vault. She hurried in and collected a measured amount of coins in a seemingly bottomless pouch. Hurriedly, she hustled out of the vault and back into the cart. The doors slammed behind her and the goblin joined us in the cart.
Again, we took off and zoomed through the extensive tunnel system. Down one of the long turnoffs, I could have sworn I'd seen a burst of flames. Abruptly, we stop again, this time at the Potter vault. When the door opens I pull out two satchels and dart inside, suddenly self-conscious of the much larger piles of coins in the vault. Hurriedly I shove my hands into a pile of Galleons and shovel them into the bags. I hurry back to the cart, head down. The goblin joins us once again and we travel quickly back to the upper world.
I blink a couple times as we emerge into the sunlight, then rub them, lifting my glasses off of my face. Properly adjusted, I follow behind Mrs. Weasley as she purposefully walks towards Flourish and Blotts, presumably to buy our school books. As we walk, Percy draws the slip of paper out of his pocket and squints at it. I snatch it out of his hands, mostly to keep him walking faster, and he mildly protests before giving in and letting me read it.
"Eeylops owl emporium. Special order 665532" I read, then hand the note back to him. "We can head there when we get a chance… I guess someone bought you an owl" he hummed in response and we continued, speeding up a little to catch up with the Weasleys.
Heyyyyy that took a really really long time. From now on, I'm thinking of posting one chapter revision each day. Hopefully. Anyways, have a good day/night/morning/evening/otherwise-not-noted-time-of-day. byeeeeee!