The next morning, Envy was out of bed far earlier than usual. He let out his owl first thing, and by the time breakfast was ready, he had been waiting outside the door for half an hour. The cook looked surprised when she opened the dining room for breakfast. "What are you doing up so early, Envy? I don't know when it was last that I saw you out of bed before nine o'clock."
"Yeah, well." Envy shrugged. "I've got somewhere to be."
"Oh?" The cook opened the doors wider, allowing Envy to push past her. "Where are you going?"
Envy pulled out a chair from the table and took a seat. "I'm visiting a friend from school."
The cook hummed and bustled into the kitchen to get the food. "What is that school of yours called, anyway?"
Envy froze, floundering inside as he tried to come up with a response. "It's, um—" He was cut off as the other children began pouring in.
Cook hurried out of the kitchen and began distributing sausages and eggs about the table, and Envy sighed in relief. It looked as if he'd gotten out of ruining his summer this time—and hopefully there wouldn't be a next time.
The cook seemed to forget that she asked about school in the morning rush, and Envy was able to avoid any further questioning. As soon as he had finished breakfast he dashed up to his room, grabbed the money under his mattress, pulled on his socks and shoes, which he was tempted not to wear, and was back in the entrance hall faster than you can say "homunculus".
Ian was there and greeted him with a hug, which Envy squirmed out of after he got over his surprise.
"Don't get run over by a bus okay?"
Envy stared at the boy for a moment, wondering about the his sanity, then laughed. "All right, brat." He turned and started out the door, ignoring Ian's shouts of, "I'm not a brat!"
The day outside was just warming up, and the London air was full of city smells. The closest bus stop was a block away, so it didn't take long to get there. He waited at the stop for about ten minutes before a bus stopped by, conveniently heading in the right direction. Envy paid once he was on board and took a seat near the middle.
He hadn't realized before how far the Granger's were from his orphanage, but he began to get an idea after half an hour of driving through moderately fast traffic. But at last, he was out of that stuffy bus and staring up at the building labeled Granger Dentistry.
Envy wondered why he was feeling so nervous now. Really, he was just going to visit a friend.
With a deep breath, he pushed the door open. A bell above the entrance rang, and the receptionist looked up from the fashion magazine she was reading.
"Oh! Can I help you?"
Envy came to the realization that it wasn't normal for a twelve-year-old to walk into the dentist's without a guardian. "Yeah, I'm a friend of Hermione Granger's from school and I don't know her address, so I looked this place up in the phone directory . . ."
The receptionist—her name tag said Patty—looked surprised. "You know Hermione?" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, then shook her head and smiled. "I'm sure she'll be happy to have a friend over. The Grangers live upstairs above this floor." She pointed at a staircase across from her desk.
Envy grudgingly thanked the woman, then headed for the stairs. At the top was a door, which he quietly opened. They were friends right? Why bother knocking? He didn't consider himself a polite person anyway.
Upon entering the hallway beyond the door, Envy closed it behind him and looked around. There were several more doors lining the walls; the first on the right turned out to be a closet, and the one across from that was wide open—as a matter of fact, it didn't even have a door. It looked to be a sitting room, and on the sofa inside sat Hermione, nose-deep in a book.
Envy stared into the room nervously, considering whether or not this was a good idea. Then a thought occurred to him and a wicked grin spread across his face. He crept into the room, careful not to make a noise (although he doubted Hermione would notice if he did, anyway), until he was positioned behind the sofa. He waited for a moment to make absolutely sure his friend didn't know he was there, then pounced.
Hermione let out a shriek and dropped her book, then spun around, escaping Envy's grip on her shoulders and jumping to her feet in the process. She gaped at him for a moment before regaining her composure and allowing her face to settle into a pleasantly surprised smile. "Envy! When did you get here?" She paused. "Did you get a haircut?"
He shrugged and jumped over the back of the couch to join her as she sat down again. "About a minute ago. And yes, I did." That last bit was a lie, but he was still going to keep his ability hidden. "My hair grows pretty fast, though, so it'll be back by the time the school year starts."
"Oh. Why didn't you owl me to say you were coming?" Hermione leaned over to retrieve her book from the floor.
"Didn't feel like it." Envy glanced around. All his nervousness seemed to have evaporated. "So, what have you been doing all summer?"
Hermione reopened the book and marked her place before shutting it. "I visited my friend from back when I went to Muggle school, and I've finished all my summer homework."
Envy decided to ignore the fact that she had implied that she had only one friend when she went to a normal school.
"I've been sending letters to Harry whenever yours or Ron's owl deliver letters to me, but he hasn't replied."
Envy furrowed his brow. It was a relief to know he wasn't being abandoned, but also worrying, considering that Harry should be able to reply. "I haven't been getting any answers either. You think something's wrong?"
"Well . . ." She looked thoughtful. "The only reason I can think of for why Harry isn't replying is that his aunt and uncle are keeping the owls from getting to him somehow. Even so, he should be able to send us letters with Hedwig . . . unless they're not letting her out of her cage."
Envy sighed. "Well, I'm sure he's fine. He handled himself all right against Quirrell, didn't he?"
"I suppose you're right." Hermione began fiddling with her book. The two of them sat in silence for a while before Envy staged the question playing on his mind.
"So, what should we do?"
'-'
Fifteen minutes later when he was being dragged around a Muggle bookshop, he regretted asking that question. Hermione was talking animatedly about what she thought about a book he'd never heard of called Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It sounded like a very odd story, and Hermione told him several times that he should read it. He said no, of course, but she continued to pester him.
A few hours later, during which Envy ended up breaking into the horror and crime novels in the adult section, Hermione seemed to realized how long they'd been away. Envy groaned as they exited the building. "How long were we in there? I'm starving! It must be past lunchtime by now. And how the hell did you get me into books, anyway?"
Hermione laughed. "I like to think of books as doors to the imagination. They're like movies in your head."
"Yeah, I guess. . . ."
The walk back to Hermione's place was about ten minutes, and they spent half of that time in silence and the other half chatting aimlessly. They were careful not to mention school when anyone was close enough to hear.
The dentistry was just as quiet when they got back as it had been when they left, but there was talking coming from doors to the side where the dental work rooms and offices were.
Upstairs in the kitchen, a note had been left on the table by Hermione's parents about some sandwiches Mrs. Granger had made for lunch.
"Have you finished your summer homework yet?" Hermione asked after swallowing a bit of her sandwich.
"Just the Transfiguration stuff. But I'll get the rest done soon," he added at her reproachful look.
They whiled away the rest of the time Envy had there chatting and playing board games. At some point, Mr. and Mrs. Granger finished with work for the day, closed up, and joined them on the living floor for a few games.
At a quarter past six, Mrs. Granger stopped watching Envy and Mr. Granger's intense game of chess began pulling cooking ware from the cupboards. "Will you be staying for dinner?"
Envy shook his head. "Nah, I have to be home by seven." He pushed a chess piece sideways. "Rook to E3. When are you guys going to Diagon Alley?"
Mr. Granger frowned at the chessboard. "Hm . . . no idea. . . ."
"You should owl Ron to see when the Weasleys are going," Hermione suggested. "Then we can all go on the same day and meet up."
Envy shrugged. "Sure."
"Checkmate."
Envy's head snapped down to look at the board and was greeted by the sight of his king, completely cornered. "Oh, come on!"
'-'
Back at the orphanage, after dinner (during which Ian babbled to him constantly about what he'd done today and how his friend, Dennis Creevey, had visited), Envy found himself waiting in his room for his owl to return. There was no way he was going to leave the window open all night for it to fly in and wake him up. He frowned. Now that he thought of it, was his owl a he or a she?
He spent a few minutes contemplating this question. He still hadn't come to a conclusion by the time Nipper got back, and so decided to refer to the owl as an it.
'-'
Envy wrote a letter to Ron first thing next morning asking when his family would do their school shopping, then made his way down to breakfast. Ron's reply came that evening before dinner:
Dear Envy,
No idea, but we usually go to Diagon Alley a bit after we get our Hogwarts letters. I'll ask Mum about it when we do and owl you.
Ron
P.S. Have you heard from Harry? I've been sending letters all summer and he hasn't answered any of them.
Envy folded up the letter, pulled out a bit of parchment, and began to write his own note to Hermione, plus another one to Ron on the back of the reply he'd been sent.
Ron says he'll owl me when his Mum tells him when they're going. I'll owl you then.
Envy
And,
I haven't been getting any replies either. Hermione thinks something might be wrong, and I guess she's probably right.
Envy
He tucked the letters inside his bedside table, deciding to send them in the morning, then sorted through his trunk to find some of his summer homework. "Hm . . . might as well get the boring stuff out of the way first," he muttered, picking up his History of Magic homework and textbook from the trunk.
Fifteen minutes and a sloppy essay about the first of the Giant Wars later, Envy threw down his quill and leaned back in his chair with a sigh of relief. No more History of Magic homework. But there was still a whole pile of other subjects to cover. . . . Eh, it could wait.
He stared up at the ceiling, following a long crack with his eyes. He had the distinct feeling that we was forgetting something, and he couldn't remember what it was. . . .
CRASH.
Envy leaped from where he had fallen on the floor and began searching his trunk frantically. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten—Harry's birthday was tomorrow, and he was just sitting around doing homework!
He soon spotted what he was looking for; it was't much, just a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, but Harry had said that they didn't have to get him anything expensive.
Using a bit of parchment, the gift—ugh, he felt so cheesy giving one—was soon wrapped with a homemade card tied on (now he felt even cheesier, but he hadn't been able to make a trip to Diagon Alley for anything better). Nipper flew through the window shortly after with a mouse clutched in its beak.
"Drop that," Envy snapped. The owl looked rather offended, but did as it was told. Envy offered it the parcel, which Nipper accepted grudgingly. "Take that to Harry."
'-'
Envy was perplexed the following afternoon at one o'clock when his owl returned looking rather ruffled and carrying the parcel, but not the letter—and there wasn't even a note explaining why the gift hadn't been accepted. Had he been wrong to offer Every Flavor Beans? Maybe Harry didn't like them . . . but that didn't explain why it was wrapped just the same as Envy had done it. Maybe Harry wasn't able to keep anything bulkier than a letter for fear of his relatives confiscating it—but then Harry would have attached a note about it. And he hadn't been sending replies. Was his mail being intercepted?
Envy eventually decided that he was overthinking things and let Nipper rest for an hour and eat its mouse before sending his notes to Ron and Hermione. Hopefully they would get back to him soon.
'-'
Four days later, Envy received a letter from Ron that was much longer than usual. He thought the explanation inside could have been shorter, but it was all right, because he was bored and didn't have anything to do since he'd forced himself to finish his homework.
Dear Envy,
Me, Fred, and George all flew over to Harry's place in a flying car Dad rigged up to bring him to our place. There were bars on his window! Can you believe it?
Anyway, we tore those off and Fred and George climbed through the window and went downstairs to get Harry's trunk. Harry almost forgot Hedwig, and she screeched and woke up everyone in the house, the bloody bird. We barely made it out of there.
It turns out that the reason Harry hasn't been replying is because he hasn't even been getting any of our letters! Apparently a house-elf has been stealing all the mail that's been sent to him, and Hedwig was locked up so he could never send anything with her. Dobby (that's the elf) doesn't want Harry to go to school this year for some reason. We think Malfoy probably sent him.
Hope you're doing all right. Hogwarts letters should be coming soon.
Ron
Envy laughed out loud. He was relieved, although he wouldn't admit it, and he found it all too amusing that Ron and the twins flew to Harry's Muggle home in the middle of the night to save him. Talk about unbelievable!
. . . Then again, his situation wasn't all that credible either.
'-'
After another week, Envy received his school book list and later finally got the letter he'd been waiting for from Ron:
Dear Envy,
Mum says we'll go to Diagon Alley tomorrow. Hope you can come.
Ron
Envy grinned.
'-'
He caught a bus the next morning as soon as he could after finishing breakfast and got off close to the Leaky Cauldron.
It was easy enough to get Mrs. Todd to let him go when he informed her that he was getting school supplies, and yes, he had the money for it, and no, he wasn't telling her where he got the money from, and no, he hadn't stolen it. That last part might have been been a lie when it came to the Muggle money he had, but that didn't really matter, seeing as he didn't know where it came from in the first place.
The pub was just filling up as he walked in, some of the patrons yawning while others talked and laughed boisterously with their fellows. Envy shuddered as a soot-covered person fell out of the fireplace in a roar of green flames. He'd read a bit about Floo travel, but he didn't end up getting far past the 'Travel by fire' part. He'd at least read enough to know that the Floo powder made it so the flames didn't burn.
He pushed those thoughts away and noticed that the person who had fallen out of the fireplace had been followed by a few others. After a moment of studying them, he realized with a chuckle that it was, in fact, the Weasleys who were tumbling over each other.
Once he was sure that they were all out and no flames were going to reach him when he approached, he drew closer just in time to hear the twins say, "Hey, where's Harry? He came through right after us, didn't he?" The Weasleys began looking around, but Envy froze as one though invaded his mind:
What if the Floo powder hadn't worked correctly and Harry had disintegrated?
"Oy, Envy!"
Envy's head snapped up and his gaze landed on Ron, who was waving his arms.
"Good to see you, mate! Have you seen Harry?"
Envy finally walked all the way to the Weasley Clan. "Nope. Just got here two minutes ago."
"Oh, I knew it," Mrs. Weasley fretted, cleaning Ginny's face with a handkerchief. "He mispronounced Diagon Alley. He must have arrived in the wrong fireplace."
Envy breathed a sigh of relief. They might not be out of the woods yet, but at least he knew that his friend probably hadn't been turned into a pile of ashes.
The Weasleys plus Envy were too worried about Harry to stay and wait for the Grangers, and so they agreed to begin looking for him. They split into two groups; Envy, Ron, the twins, Percy, and Mr. Weasley went looking one way, and Mrs. Weasley and Ginny followed close behind to make sure they didn't miss him.
Eventually they found Harry in front of Gringotts with Hagrid and Hermione. It turned out Harry had come out of a fireplace in some shop called Borgin and Burkes in a shady place called Knockturn Alley. Maybe he'd check it out later. . . .
After retrieving some money from their respective vaults (Envy didn't bother to be embarrassed that he had more money than the Weasleys—Harry's fortune far outweighed his), the Weasleys plus Harry, Envy, and Hermione all parted ways to deal with what they had to do—or in Mr. Weasley's case, take Mr. and Mrs. Granger for a drink.
The quad really only needed schoolbooks, so they bought some ice cream and began wandering the alley, taking interest in the displays in front windows. At one point while exploring a small junk shop, they found Percy reading a book titled Prefects Who Gained Power, but were quickly shooed away to leave him in peace.
As planned, they went to Flourish and Blotts an hour later. It was a surprise to see that a number of middle-aged witches were clogging the way in, all whispering excitedly and craning their necks to see inside the shop. The reason why was made apparent by the banner stretching across the front windows proclaiming that Gilderoy Lockhart would be signing copies of his autobiography today.
Envy wasn't quite sure why the name sounded so familiar until Hermione let out an exclamatory squeal about how he'd written most of the book list.
"Magical Me, huh?" Envy said as he reread the banner. "That's quite a self-centered title for an autobiography."
"Oh, I'm sure it's nothing," Hermione answered dismissively.
"Whatever you say."
They made it into the shop a few minutes later after some jostling, then grabbed copies of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2, and went up the line to where the rest of the Weasleys and the Grangers were standing.
Envy looked to the table where Lockhart was flashing a grin and winking at the woman who he was signing a book for (she was blushing furiously). And in that moment, he came to the unchangeable conclusion that Gilderoy Lockhart was an idiot.
'-'
Random End Tidbit:
Harry had to wonder how Dobby managed to fit all those letters in the pillowcase he was wearing.
So sorry about the wait! I honestly have no excuse other than laziness.
I decided to put the Grangers up above their business because that seemed a whole lot better than making Envy have to walk somewhere or take the bus again. And speaking of buses, I have never been on one except my church's bus, so I don't know how all the stops work or if it's different in the UK. Please correct me if I got anything wrong.
I had to get up calendars from 1992 to figure out the timeline. It was a bit of a pain, but in the end I figured out the exact day the Weasleys went to Diagon Alley that year! It was Wednesday, 12 August, if anyone was wondering.
I am answering one guest review this chapter:
Guest: Hi ! Your story is so cool and fun ! But i have a question. Will the other homunculus and/or Father be there as well ? (I don't know if this sentence is correct because i'm French and in middle school so i hope it is and if no i'm sorry
First of all, no, the rest of the homunculi and Father will not be involved. This story is just for Envy. Second, your English was perfectly fine! Keep improving. :)
And to Kira Akuma, a not-guest, I really wanted to make Envy visit Harry, but I decided that Surrey is too far away . . . even though I realized a bit later that it's not. . . .
Hey, what do you guys think Envy's owl's gender is? Because I could have sworn it was female, but then I looked back through previous chapters where Nipper appeared and I found that I had referred to it as an It the whole time. So, yeah, what do you guys think?
And on one last note, thanks so much for 150 follows! This story has almost 100 favorites and reviews, so please help that number grow!
-Quiet Leaf