"But really, Ron, he didn't get sorted out at St. Mungos? Did you see that article in the Prophet?" Seamus continued to pepper Ron with questions through the gap in the books between aisles at Flourish and Blotts.
"Mum, this way! Come on!" Ginny urged.
"Ron and Ha-, Er, you better come with me, too," Mrs. Weasley said, breathlessly and following Ginny out of the aisles.
Harry managed to get ahold of Ron's robes…he nearly left Harry alone… and followed them through the store.
"But you've got to tell me? Is it true that he killed a Basilisk?" Seamus was heard shouting over the hubbub in the shop.
Curiosity was the only thing keeping Harry tethered to Ron and not jumping back to his cave… that and his desire to see Gemma again… and Hermione and Neville.
In the hubbub, Harry had lost his orientation in the shop, so when they stepped out onto the street suddenly, it was a shock to Harry. He hadn't heard the door opening and closing, letting in the sounds of the street in sudden bursts.
Ron seemed to remember that he was supposed to be guiding Harry and stopped just over the threshold to find Harry's hand and put it on his arm, muttering that he was sorry. Harry had to push down feelings of resentment and anger that he was reliant on Ron to remember him. While his invisibility cloak had been a comfort and a constant companion through this whole ordeal—shielding him from everyone who was trying to hunt him down—right now it felt fettering. He itched to take it off at the same time the thought made his skin crawl.
Mrs. Weasley had found the Auror and they were talking in hushed tones as their wixen boots struck sharply on the cobblestones leading the way through the throngs. Ron and Harry were hurrying to keep up with them. Harry was buffeted by people pushing past Ron in a hurry until Ginny grabbed his hand through the invisibility cloak (he wasn't sure how she found it) and protected him from the other side. Finally, the two women turned into a quiet side alley and the three children huddled together by a damp brick wall, their shoes slightly submerged in a dank puddle of water. Nearby, there was a steady dripping.
Harry couldn't hear Mrs. Weasley and Auror Bones talking anymore and guessed that they had put up some kind of sound shield.
"Ginny, do you know what's going on?" Harry whispered.
"Just that Auror Bones needed to speak to mum urgently. They didn't mind us following… in fact, they kept checking to make sure we were close behind them. But now they've put up a silencing charm… so I have no idea," Ginny huffed.
"I'm pretty sure I heard them say something about Sirius Black," Ron muttered darkly.
Harry slumped more into the brick wall, the invisibility cloak protected him from getting damp.
There was a pop and Harry could hear the wixen boots on the cobblestone again… approaching them. Both Ginny and Ron turned toward the noise as well and Harry stood away from the wall, attentive.
"Is Harry here with you?" Auror Bones asked quietly. Mrs. Weasley had stepped behind her quietly and Harry heard the sounds of the street being cut off as a silencing charm settled around the five of them.
"Yes, ma'am. I'm here," Harry said.
"Harry. We were hoping to avoid this, but I'm afraid we have to inform you that a large black dog has been spotted by several sources near Diagon Alley. Though we haven't been able to verify it, we think it is Sirius Black. He was not captured, though both magical and muggle officers of the law are pursuing him. The dog is chasing something small through London—a cat or a rat—reports vary. He's very frenzied—like a rabid animal."
Ron started at the word "rat" and grabbed onto Harry.
"Though the Ministry wants to take you into custody for your safety, I think, and Molly agrees, that you'll be safer in the cave where you've been able to hide this summer until Hogwarts begins. And somehow you've taught yourself how to apparate? Can you get back there now?"
"But I haven't even seen Gemma… and Hermione and Neville yet!" Harry moaned.
Ron snorted and muttered, "likely story" under his breath. Harry was getting sick of that joke and pulled his arm from Ron's grasp.
"You'll be back at Hogwarts in two days… ah, yes, we do need to figure out how you're going to get there. I don't think it is wise for you to take the Hogwarts Express," Auror Bones said grimly.
"What? No! Can't I just start the new term like everyone else? It's bad enough that I have all this going on now!" Harry said, motioning to his eyes.
"Harry, you don't know how hard it has been to convince the Minister and others that you are safest at Hogwarts. They are really pushing to have you…" she trailed off.
"Have me what?"
"They want to study you. Keep you in the DOM," Auror Bones said solemnly.
"Gah! Why can't I just live my life? Why does everyone want to meddle with it?" Harry groaned.
Mrs. Weasley stepped closer, fumbled for a bit trying to find him, and pulled him into a hug. She had been so silent during this whole exchange and Harry now understood as her tears dripped into his hair.
"Oh, Harry. Would that we could protect you from all of this. You're absolutely right. It isn't fair," she sniffled. "And there is an immediate threat that we need to deal with."
Mrs. Weasley let go of him and blew her nose, seeming to get ahold of herself.
"All right. Harry, you have your tablet?" Mrs. Weasley asked, the tears barely a trace in her voice.
"Yes," he answered.
"You should apparate back to your cave. I've got your list. I'll get the rest of your supplies. I know. It is no fun and not what we planned. We'll send you messages and figure out how to get you safely on the Hogwarts Express…" she paused here as Auror Bones made a disagreeing grunt. "We'll get you on the Hogwarts Express… with your friends who you are missing and try to get this term off to as normal a start as we can."
Harry shook out his staff while she was talking and summoned the velveteen bag that held his galleons. It had a nice weight in his hand. Mrs. Weasley had grabbed onto his shoulders for her bold declaration and so it wasn't hard to find her hand and press the bag into it. Before she could protest, he twisted away from her and apparated away.
Instead of landing in the cool, earthen womb of the caves, Harry had remembered the sounds and feelings of the spot where Dobby had first taken him in Diagon Alley… near the quill shop, in the shadow of Gringotts. Even though the sounds and the feeling of the pavement under his feet made him confident that he'd landed where he wanted, he reached out a tentative hand to confirm that the cart with the quill display was where he thought it was. He nearly upset another vase of quills, but managed to steady it before it toppled over.
He undid the ties holding the cloak to his right hand so that he could use the staff under his cloak… limited though the range of motion was… and navigated to the cool wall. He summoned the tablet out of his staff and sent a message to Gemma, hoping that she'd be able to find him and come quickly.
He had thought about grabbing onto Ron when he was apparating away… but he didn't know if he manage side-along apparition and didn't want to risk it. Also, it would alert Auror Bones and Mrs. Weasley to his plan. They needed to think that he had followed orders and gone back to his cave.
He was working on a message to Ron when a message came through, and as he read it, he sighed in relief that he hadn't yet finished his note to Ron.
"This is Auror Bones, using Ron Weasley's tablet. Did you reach your destination safely?"
Harry quickly erased the message he had been writing to Ron and wrote, "Yes. I'm safe." His messages were always as brief as he could make them… braille was still so slow for him.
He figured it wasn't really a lie. He felt safer now than he had when they were in the alley… with the threat of being imprisoned in the Department of Mysteries with that git Croaker who wanted to get his bony hands on him… do experiments and who knows what else.
How is Gemma going to find me? How am I going to talk to her?
He slouched against the cool wall and stuck his staff out a little ways, hoping that the silver tip was slightly visible… just to someone observant who was looking for it.
It took a little while for his heart to stop racing waiting for Gemma to find him. He held his tablet in one hand, his staff in the other and tried to just take in deep breaths and listen to the sounds of people walking past or up the stairs to Gringotts. He wondered if Malfoy and his dad had left the bank yet. Maybe they were doing more than just making a withdrawal. He hoped he hadn't inadvertently drawn Gemma into their path again. Especially if she had come on her own as he urged.
His tablet vibrated in his hand and he ran his fingers over the raised dots to read the message. He was just on the verge of pulling his anagnóstis out of his staff to read it faster when he finally figured the first bit out.
Ron had his tablet back and was wondering if Harry had really returned to the caves. He needed something. Harry was trying to decipher the message (Ron must have been in a hurry… it didn't make any sense) when he heard someone coming near. He froze, listening carefully… wondering if he should pull his staff under his cloak or stick it out further?
Harry held his breath as someone made the quills in the metal vases rustle and tinkle. He pulled his staff closer to his body slowly, hoping the movement didn't draw attention to it.
After a bit, the noises stopped and then they left, their footsteps sounding on the pavement as they moved away. Harry breathed in again and moved his staff back out a bit, hoping that when Gemma did come (if she came?) that she'd notice it. He tucked it into the crook of his arm and tried reading the note from Ron again and then just gave up and sent a question mark back to Ron.
Ron sent back a one-word response, "Scabbers!" and finally Harry was able to decipher the original message. Ron was worried that the big black dog was after Scabbers!
Harry thought about what he'd do if he thought Nio or Hedwig were being pursued by something so big and determined. He shuddered and the silver tip of his staff tinged against the stones.
Harry tugged at his collar… it was so hot here on the surface. He had acclimated to his underground sanctuary. The sounds around him felt like they were closing in… adding to his feeling of suffocation. He had to unclench his jaw, wiggle it, and take in a slow deep breath, then focus on writing back to Ron.
"Find me. Quills."
A few other people had wandered over to look through the quills.
"Have you tried this nib before?" a youngish-sounding woman was asking.
"Oh, I don't like those… too fine. They wear out so fast. I like a squared-off nib, personally…" an older woman responded. "Here try this one, it has that continuously inking charm that I like so much. No need to fuss with bottles."
"Have you tried that moonlight ink that Vic Yarrow developed?"
"Haven't heard of it. What? Only visible by the moon?"
"Yes, and so luminescent that it attracts GCBs. Written correctly, and they might even give you strands of their hair!" This seemed to really please the older woman and they wandered off, still chatting about the moon inks and the uses of fairy hair when Harry heard something nearer to him that made him start.
Someone had snapped their fingers near him.
"Gemma?" he whispered and then remembered. Right, can't hear me.
He moved the tip of his staff out a little farther, hoping it was visible.
Another snap sounded closer.
Harry moved his hand holding the staff out from the folds of the cloak and Gemma rushed forward, catching his hand and waving across it with uninhibited glee. Harry moved his other hand over hers, trying to understand what she was saying.
He wanted to throw off the cloak even more now… though he also was worried that someone would notice her… doing what? Signing into a disembodied hand? Still the noises from the street had continued on without pausing.
He had no idea what she was trying to tell him and he could tell that she was getting more frustrated. Finally, pulled the tablet from under his arm where he had stuck it when he heard the first snap and held it out to her to see, then pulled it back under the cloak and stepped back to find the wall again, put away his staff and sat down. It took him a moment to adjust the cloak so that he had enough room underneath to write on the tablet, then he worked on sending her a message. She settled down next to him, snug against his side. He heard her rummaging around in a bag.
"Sorry!" he wrote.
"For what?" she responded quickly.
"Keep cloak on."
"I understand. It keeps you safe."
"Hard to talk."
"Yes, it always is for us. Isn't it?"
He reached out and tapped her knee twice through the cloak… their original sign for yes, before he'd learned how to sign properly.
"I see your friend Ron! He's coming this way."
Harry waved against her knee, trying to convey his relief but realized that he'd probably communicated more trepidation than he meant when his tablet vibrated with a new message.
He ran his fingers over the raised dots. "What is it?"
"Need to find Ron's rat," Harry wrote out as Ron's heavy footsteps clattered on the pavement near them. He could feel Gemma gesturing to Ron and Ron sat down on his other side.
"Harry?" Ron asked.
"Yes, I'm here. Do you remember the charm that writes out your words on a slip of paper for Gemma?" Harry asked.
"Oh, right," Ron said and then muttered the spell. His next words were followed by the tattletale fluttering of paper. "Why haven't you done it, mate?"
"It would be a dead giveaway, wouldn't it?" Harry sighed as Gemma jostled his knee. "Tell Gemma what I'm saying. She hates to be left out."
Ron repeated their conversation grudgingly and then launched into a plea to find Scabbers.
"How are we going to do that?" Harry asked and then nudged Ron to remind him to repeat his words for Gemma.
"Scabbers is my pet rat. That big dog… Sirius Black… is hunting him, streets from here, right now," Ron explained to Gemma.
"Beats me," Ron answered a question that Gemma asked. Harry nudged Ron.
"Er, right. She wonders why they aren't here in Diagon Alley."
Ron jostled him and then was lumbering off before Harry understood what was happening. He turned his questioning face to Gemma, forgetting that she couldn't see him. She had her hand on his shoulder and was pushing him forward and then drawing on his back. He was confused at first and then realized that she was signing on his back… mapping out where Ron had gone and that he was coming back with two more people. He turned so that she could reach more of his back after tapping on her knee again, letting her know that he understood.
Two more people? Won't that attract attention? Harry wondered, but then remembered that they were in Diagon Alley… there were groups of people everywhere today since it was nearly the start of term and there were school supplies that had to be purchased.
Gemma had found his hand and was fingerspelling names… Ginny and Hermione. Then she wrote on his back again with her finger… more people were coming. Fred and George this time. And then one last person arrived… Neville.
Gemma pulled on his arm, telling him to stand up as they all neared.
"Where's Harry?" Fred asked. "I thought you said he'd be here with Gemma?"
Harry heard the slip of paper when he spoke and was glad that he remembered the charm. Maybe Ron reminded them all?
"He's standing next to Gemma," Hermione officiously stated. She sounded a bit out of breath.
Soon he was surrounded by the lot of them. Gemma was signing into his hand with the cloak still draped over it. Her excitement buzzing through her fingers. Ginny was hanging onto his other arm. Fred and George were cracking jokes about Operation Pick Scabby.
"Hiya, Harry," Neville said quietly. "You all right?"
"Sure, Neville," Harry said. "I'm all right. How about you?"
"Oh, Harry, you've got to talk Ron out of this… we don't even have a plan!" Hermione moaned.
"Out of what?" Harry asked, turning toward Hermione, and attempting to sign what he was saying to Gemma. Gemma tapped impatiently on his wrist. He drew a question mark on her hand.
Gemma tapped again, a little more forcefully and Harry took a deep breath and then focused on signing as best he could given his limited fluency in BSL under Gemma's cupped hands.
"Harry, did you hear anything we said?" Hermione asked.
"Just a sec, Hermione. I'm trying to fill Gemma in. You all have cast the writing spell, right?" there were a chorus of responses and some of them cast the spell just then.
They were all huddled around Harry and Gemma in a tight circle.
"So what's going on?" Harry asked, while making the simple sign under Gemma's hands.
They all started speaking at once. Harry got fragments of the story from each of them, but not enough to be coherent.
"Hush, everyone," Hermione insisted. "One at a time. Ron, you go first. You're the one who said you needed our help."
"So, yeah. That beast is after Scabbers. I'm certain of it. He disappeared at the same time we heard he was headed toward the Burrow. And now a giant black dog is chasing a rat all over London… and both magical and muggle aurors are trying to capture it? It can't be a coincidence!" Ron was emphatic.
"But why would Sirius Black want the rat? That doesn't make any sense. I thought he was after Harry?" George said.
Gemma's hand fluttered under Harry's palm—consternation—he determined. He remembered her read on the big black dog when they encountered it in the alley outside of the Center. She had thought it wasn't going to attack them… she thought it looked sad.
"Right. It doesn't make sense… but that's what's happening and we've got to save Scabbers… maybe the Death Eater wants to use Scabbers to get to Harry? I mean, we share a room at Hogwarts, right?" Ron said, sounding a bit desperate.
"But we'd be putting Harry in his path if we go out into London looking for them. That doesn't make any sense!" Hermione insisted.
"But we've got this!" Ron said.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"The flute! And I think I know how to use it. I've been practising. Got the Gernumblies to relocate themselves," Ron said.
"That was pretty epic," Fred said, patting Ron on the back energetically.
"Saved us hours of gnome tossing," George contributed.
"And bites. Not one of us was bitten," Ginny piped in.
Gemma was gesturing emphatically and the others were groaning.
"Gemma's telling the Weasleys off for their treatment of the Gernumblies," Neville whispered to Harry with a laugh.
"Harry, could you take your invisibility cloak off your head at least? We can make sure no one sees you. It's just so hard to have conversations with you without being able to see your facial expressions," Hermione asked.
"No kidding," Harry sighed, and pushed the hood back a bit, hoping that it revealed his face, but kept the back of his head hidden. "How's that?"
"Better," Hermione said, while Gemma seized him in a tight side hug.
Harry cast the spell that wrote out his words on slips of paper for Gemma to read and she signed her thanks across his back.
"So, are we going to save Scabbers, or what?" Harry asked.
[break]
Author notes:
02/11/2023 We've recorded up to chapter 36 of the Basilisk Eyes podfic, if you're interested. Find it on Spotify or Anchor under Hegemone Fanfiction Podfic.