A/N: Well, it's been a few years but finally, I have started writing again. A few life changes have occured, lost some good friends and gained others, let the fun reccomence!
Disclaimers are still in the intro, I'm lazy, dont hate me.
"Well, it would save the police closing the road and stopping business for hours or days depending on what hits ya, and I'm already head that way so yeah, finish your drinks and once the glasses are cleaned I'll take you down."
Just after leaving the pub and passing through just some of the fog-bound, furrow less fields of the moors in what can only be described as a large wedge of wood on wheels, there were three people, the driver, one Mark Richardson, a young lad and, an adolescent female.
"Mark, thank you for doing this for us." The young lady commented.
"No problem lass, as I said at the pub, I'm heading this way anyway and the chances are that you'd end up under something that would close the road, in turn stopping my business, so by me doing this, I can keep earning money."
"Seriously Mark, thanks, for both saving our lives and also for the lift." The younger male commented.
"I didn't save yeh, I prevented yeh from getting run over, but you weren't dying on the road when I did it. Yeh were in me pub when I offered the lift." The elder gentleman stated in an attempt to prevent the passengers from making any more comments. "Hold on to something you two, we're at Solomon's hollow and the brakes would die on me if I was to hold them in all the way down, the engine would get us on the way up too."
"What do you mean?" was mentioned from the rear seat where the brown haired witch was sat behind the currently copper haired wizard next to the mainly black but grey speckled head of the driver.
"You'll see, trust me." Was the only comment in return, which came as the car started to head downhill at a fair angle and a corresponding increase of speed that seemed to be uncontrolled until the curve halfway down at which point the brakes came off and the car took off like a rocket down the last part of the hill, the driver stamped on the power as the car was levelling off after the descent and suddenly started rising almost as fast as the car had descended the other side of the hollow. "Americans were supposed to fill that in or give us a bridge shortly after World War 2, but they ran off before we could get them to sort it unfortunately. Shame because some good people's brakes failed there and they went head on into wagons, never found much of any of them after that impact."
"OK, I didn't expect it to be that steep on either side, what caused it to appear though?" was the enquiry from the ever-inquisitive female on the backseat.
"You get used to it after a while, took me two years and four near misses to figure out how to drive it properly. And the answer to the question is, it has always been there."
After the rollercoaster of a hill. The car's occupants passed a sign stating that they were entering 'Blackshaw Moor', just after passing the sign the Mark commented "Good job you got lost near me, the owner of the three 'shoes wouldn't give a lift to his own mother, unless it was life or death for him."
"Really, why would you say that?"
"She always ask this many questions on the way to anywhere with you lad?"
"You've got it light today, she'll still be cold and slightly damp, that'd normally cause shorts in her head." The younger lad commented dryly.
"I am still here you two, and I was just wondering. No need to get sarcastic on me."
"Lass, I know because it has happened, someone got lost and asked for directions to Leek, he was heading that way anyway but just said 'Follow the road, and don't get hit.', we were both filling up at the petrol station just back there when the lost chap asked, I decided to give him a lift instead, he was like you two earlier, kept on thanking me, no need to thank me, if I'm heading the same way, I'll help out."
After a few more minutes of slightly stilted conversation Harry asks "What sort of car are we in? It's not one I recognise."
"We are in a 1978 Leyland Princess 2, I got it cheap a couple of months back because this wasn't the more powerful model. Only a 1700 engine in it, still goes through some fuel though, a tank every 10 to 14 days."
"Ah, yeah, I think I remember reading about these when they came out, I feel sorry for those with the more powerful engines, they had what either a 2 litre or what was the other one?"
"two two, but yeah thinking about it, they may move faster, but this is easier to maintain, got more space under the bonnet, and if I had a bigger engine, the tank would be gone in less than a week, cheers for reminding me of that. If you'd have appeared a couple of months back, we'd be in my old motor, a German bug, it ran well but was on the verge of failing properly, camshaft had a fracture most of the way through at the second cylinder."
"I bet that would've gone with a bang, and what did you have in it?" The younger chap responded as they passed a sign stating that they were in 'Leek, the Queen of the Moorlands'. "And why is this place the 'Queen of the Moorlands'?
"The bug was a flat 4, at least 'til I got it, changed for a flat 6. As for the title, Leek seems to be the easiest way into the Moorlands, and by extension the Peak District, from Staffs of course."
The backseat passenger started talking again, as they went past what appeared to be a semi-derelict building that used to be a factory of some sort, "What else is there around here to do other than walking?"
"Yeh friends not tell yeh anythin' or somthin'? Was the rhetorical question from the driver, he also added "There used to be a mini railway at the lake on t'other side of town, an' some people are tryin' to run a theme park at an old stately home up in Farley, they just got planning permission for a new ride to go along with 'The Corkscrew' and the other rides they have,"
"How long have they been trying the theme park?" the questioning witch asked, mainly for conversation sake.
"A year or two properly, since 1850's for looking around in general. There used to be a fair for people who visited the gardens, until World War 2 when the army took the place over for machine gunner training." Intoned the barman-cum-driver. "We're in the middle of leek now you two."
"Ah, right, Cheers for the lift Mark." Was chorused from the passengers as they both got out.
"No problem, just don't get lost near Blackshaw moor, or at least go to Anzio, the military will help you unlike the three shoes." Was the parting comment from Mark to both of his passengers.
When the two time travellers looked around all they could see was the typical historic market town and the town centre only having a maximum of three floors above ground and most being only two. The two 'Southerners' had been dropped off in front of the Leek United & Midlands Building Society, a brick faced structure with three floors about halfway up a hill leading to a church. On the other side of the road there were shops selling all sorts of things, one was selling second-hand vinyl records, next door up the hill was a pet shop that seemed to have originally been two doors up from the record shop before expanding into the shop between, next was a fishing shop, followed by access to some flats above the shops, and going around the corner was a shop selling kitchen wares.
Once the pair had crossed the street they decided to go around the corner with the kitchen shop and head up that street called 'Cattle Market' to see what was happening as there was quite a volume of people heading up the street. It turns out that over to the left of Cattle Market was another road, called 'Sheep Market'.
The two market streets were living up to their names, on the upper one there was a sheep auction going on, apparently a record was being set for the market with a young ram selling for just under £3 per pound, and the lower one that the out-of-towners were walking apparently had "A rather fine looking young cow ready for either milk production or for increasing the diversity of a herd."
The currently flame-haired lad commented "looks just like any other cow to me." In a low whisper that only his companion could discern.
"Harry, don't say that, these guys take their animals seriously." The witch whispered back barely audible to the red head next to her. "Harry, I just remembered reading how to spot one of us in muggle areas, we need to find someone wearing green or purple."
"And how do we approach them? Show them our wands? Or say a spell? If it is a spell, which one?"
"Ok, not the best option, given that this area appears to be farming and green clothing is plentiful around here, try looking for pur…"
"Would it apply to buildings Herms? The ginger interrupted and inquired.
"Maybe, Why?" was questioned by the woman with coffee coloured curls.
"Shop on the brow of the hill, Home and Colonial, Looks to be painted green and all the other shops are bare brick or stone."
"Thinking back, there was a green shop with a door with a ship on it that my parents couldn't see, they thought I was messing around. I can't remember the shop's name.
"I am so happy that you came here when you were younger, and what's wrong with you not remembering shop names?"
Just as they got to the door to the shop Hermione whispered angrily "I was ten! Give me a chance."
Upon entering Home and Colonial, the pair decided to make it look like they were just looking around, after a few minutes of looking at the fresh produce near the front consisting of punnets of strawberries (some as big as a hand), tomatoes as red as a cooked lobster, Leeks as lengthy as a longbow, onions of all sizes and, surprisingly, a model ship hanging in a frame on a door.