Chapter 9 :: Summer's End
BREATHING hard, I slowed to a stop at the edge of the forest that covered the eastern side of the Isle. This was my third day living on the Sopophorous Isle, and I had decided to take up an exercise regimen. Before eating breakfast, I would do a thirty minute yoga session, pushups, sit-ups, and reverse pull-ups on a sturdy tree branch, followed by a run in which I interspersed jogging with short sprints.
I estimated the forest was around three quarters of a mile from my camp, and was surprised by how winded the run there had left me. My plan to run there and back seemed a little overly ambitious now, with a stitch stabbing my upper abdomen and my legs feeling wobbly, so I ambled south along the perimeter of the forest, waiting to recover enough to jog back to my camp.
Before long I came across a patch of wild blackberries, and picked a handful. The juicy, ripe fruit were gratifyingly refreshing in my somewhat dehydrated state. I would have to return later by broom and gather a larger amount, to round out my food stocks with something fresh; they would certainly make my daily breakfast of oatmeal more appetizing.
I had gone fishing again later in the afternoon yesterday, and this time luck had been with me and I managed to catch a half dozen fish in short order. I had found a charm for gutting and scaling fish in my copy of Practical Household Magic, and mastered it after an evening of practice. The cleaned fish were now sitting in the icebox in my tent, along with a bunch of wild onions I had dug up near my camp.
Lacking proper exercise clothing, I'd converted Dudley's old pants into shorts by cutting the legs well above the knee, and used a strip of cloth from his shirt as a belt. Taking my wand out of his capacious pocket, I spent some time practicing the levitation charm on small rocks and fallen branches until I felt ready for the jog back to camp. I forgoed the sprints this time, keeping to a slow but steady pace, and made it back without resurrecting the stitch in my side.
After eating half of a fish and some lentils with cashews for lunch, I devoted the afternoon to practicing Transfiguration. I had mostly focused my learning on Charms, finding them far easier to pick up than Transfiguration, but I made steady progress over the course of the afternoon, turning the dead pine needles blanketing my campsite into a succession of sharper sewing needles adorned with increasingly well-defined eyes at the other end.
According to my text, the key to successful Transfiguration was visualization, and I felt my ability was quickly improving, aided by how similar pine needles and their metal counterparts looked. I confirmed this by attempting transfigure a few small pebbles into needles and failing miserably, only managing to produce several small, lumpy bits of metal.
Getting a small fire going as the sun dipped toward the horizon, I switched gears and worked on the Shrinking and Engorgement Charms, stopping only to eat a light dinner of raisins and peanuts. Fifth-year charms, these proved much harder to learn than any others I had attempted so far.
I gave myself a bit of a scare when a failed casting of the Engorgement Charm caused a sputtering jet of fire to leap out of my wand and ignite the dried needles below the pebble I'd been aiming at. Fortunately, Aguamenti was one of the first Second-Year Charms I had mastered, and a jet of water from my wand forestalled the possibility of setting my campsite ablaze.
It took four days of nightly practice before I was able to consistently turn a pebble into a rock the size of my head, and shrink it back down to its original size. During the days, I had made significant progress mapping out the Isle, flying along the perimeter and landing to sketch what I saw my Variable Volume.
The Isle was roughly elliptical in shape, which I estimated was several miles across in the wider east-to-west dimension and a little under a mile across north-to-south. The northern mountains descended in steep cliffs toward the sea, dotted with small caves, to a narrow strip of sandy beach which extended from the westernmost tip of the Isle to encompass most of the eastern forest.
Cold gusts of wind prefaced the arrival of a foreboding wall of clouds on the western horizon on the evening of my eight day on the Isle, the 16th of August. Having recently replenished my food stores with blackberries, a growing variety of wild herbs I'd located, and several more fish, I built a small fire and settled to eating dinner and re-reading my First-Year Potions book, and waited for the rain to start.
The inclement weather lasted for a full four days, and by the last day I was feeling some serious cabin fever. By the time the sun re-emerged and began baking the accumulated moisture off the ground, I had my first two years of Potions recipes more or less memorized, and had tabulated the costs of their ingredients and compared them to the prices in the Owl-order catalog.
Mostly they had minimal profit margins, sometimes even costing less than their ingredients, and I suspected that quantity discounts were available on many ingredients, for professional Potions Masters. Unfortunately they wouldn't provide the source of easy money I had hoped for, but I expected more advanced potions might. In the meantime, I'd have to make my Galleons stretch, or find some other source of income.
I had also learned all of the Charms for the first three years, along with the Summoning Charm from Fourth Year, and had mastered the Shrinking and Engorgement Charms to the point that I could shrink my copper cauldron to the size of a thimble. I'd also taught myself the Hot Air Charm, the Cleaning Charm, and an Air Freshening Charm from Practical Household Spells. The latter two came in handy, as in addition to the lingering fish smell from my dinners, Hedwig's cage had grown pretty filthy. The former allowed me to stop drying myself off from showers with the largest remaining scrap of Dudley's old t-shirt.
The next week progressed without any significant deviation from the routine I had settled into. Yoga, calisthenics, running, practicing Transfiguration, Fourth Year Charms, and reading Hogwarts: A History, The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts, and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century filled my days, only broken up by a few more afternoons spent fishing.
Progress with Occlumency proved even more difficult than Transfiguration, and though I had read through the entirety of the book I'd purchased, I was still working on the exercises in the third chapter. The text suggested mentally visualizing a library filled with crystal balls, which sounded a lot like the Hall of Prophecies in the Department of Mysteries, and storing interesting memories in said balls.
I had deviated somewhat from this recommendation. My mental library consisted of a small room contained a desk, chair, and laptop computer, with my memories stored as video files on it. My hope was that any Legilimens invading my thoughts would be stymied by the futuristic Muggle technology.
I also began to hone my flying skills by playing tag with Hedwig under the light of the waxing moon, and hoped to be repeat Harry's feat of getting selected as Seeker as a First-Year. Partly it was because I wanted to stick to the timeline of the books as closely as possible, but mostly just because Quidditch had always sounded like a lot of fun.
By the night of the 30th of August my food ran out, so I decided to return to London a night earlier than I'd planned. The journey back was uneventful, and I set up camp in my old spot in Regent's Park by moonlight. I'd get in some shopping in Muggle London and at Diagon Alley the next day, and then head to Platform 9¾ on the morning of September 1st.
I woke late the next day. After my stay on the Sopophorous Isle, being around people again reminded me of my sense of vulnerability, walking around in the body of an eleven year old. I hastened along the route through Muggle London toward Diagon Alley. My first stop was for a hearty breakfast, and the waitress at the small restaurant seemed rather suspicious of me, constantly glancing over at me. She'd asked why I was alone, and I told her that my parents were in the clothing store I had seen across the street, but I could tell that she wasn't satisfied.
When she suddenly vanished into the kitchen, I worried she might be making a phone call to the authorities. Dropped a ten-pound note on the table, I hurried out before she returned, not bothering to wait for my change. I slowed down after a few blocks and ducked into an athletics store, where I purchased a water bottle, several pairs of running shorts, a small backpack, a black baseball cap, and a pair of sunglasses which fit over my round spectacles.
The clerk there eyed me with some trepidation but didn't comment when I produced enough money to pay for my purchases. I put on my new hat and my sunglasses, pulling the hat low to cover my scar, as the Alley might be crowded with last-minute shoppers and I didn't want to draw any attention as the famous Boy-Who-Lived. I stuffed the rest of my purchases into my backpack, slung it over a shoulder, and hurriedly exited the store and continued onward.
Fortunately, I made it to the Leaky Cauldron without further incident late in the afternoon. As I'd expected, the Alley was packed, but this allowed me to blend in with the many children running around while their parents shopped. On my way into Flourish and Blotts I passed a man on his way out who had to be Lucius Malfoy, with his snakehead-tipped cane and long silver hair, who sneered at my Muggle attire as I brushed by him. Draco and Narcissa were nowhere to be seen.
With the help of a clerk, I found the introductory texts for Arithmancy and Runes, as well as the rest of the standard Third-Year texts. Having already read my First and Second year texts, I'd probably have a lot of free time, so I thought it a good idea to be able to get started on the third year curriculum.
While standing in the queue to pay for my purchases, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Turning around, my eyes fell upon a girl my age, with a wild mane of bushy hair and rather large front teeth, flanked by a pair of well-dressed and clearly Muggle parents, each carrying massive stacks of books. I barely suppressed a gasp of shock. Hermione! She began speaking in a rapid patter.
"Hello! Are you also a Muggle-born? You aren't wearing robes. I'm starting Hogwarts this year, but I haven't met any other Muggle-borns yet. I'm so excited, we're going to learn magic! Can you believe it - magic is real! I've read all the First-Year books of course, but I'm worried I'll be behind. I convinced my parents to buy me the Second-Year books, so I don't fall behind. All the spells I tried worked - I think my parents were even more shocked than when Professor McGonagall turned into a cat! Did Professor McGonagall visit you as well? Where are your parents? I'm Hermione Granger, by the way."
I chuckled, not sure which question to respond to.
"Hi, I'm Harry. Nice to meet you. Yes, I'm Muggle-born and starting Hogwarts too..."
Hermione had been scanning the titles of the books I held, and a frown formed on her face.
"Oh, you have Third-Year books? And Arithmancy and Runes? I read about those, they sound fascinating, but we can't take them until Third Year. Do you think I should get the Third Year books too?"
She whirled around to face her parents.
"Mom, Dad, look, Harry already has his Third-Year books. I told you we should buy them too."
Her father opened his mouth to respond, but she spun back to face me again before he could get a word in.
"Did you already read your Second-Year books? Have you read Hogwarts: A History? Hogwarts sounds incredible! I can't wait to see the ceiling - it's enchanted to show the sky, like a huge skylight…"
Wow. Hermione was even more overwhelming than the books had led me to expect. No wonder she'd had trouble as a First Year; children never appreciated a peer with so much enthusiasm for learning.
"... Gringotts? The Goblins are a bit stuffy, but I'm sure their culture is intriguing…"
By now I was at the front of the queue.
"Well, looks like I'm up. Don't worry Hermione, I'm sure you'll do fine at Hogwarts. See if you can find me on the Express and we can go over our notes, yeah?"
She beamed at me, agreeing to look for me on the Express. Smiling, I paid for my books, waved goodbye to Hermione, and made my way through the crowded shop to the exit. That had been a stroke of luck, meeting Hermione. Now if I managed to find Ron on the platform, I'd be well on my way to maintaining the timeline, assuming the Sorting Hat put me in Gryffindor. Well, I'd cross that bridge when I came to it.
I spent the rest of the afternoon ambling around the Alley, popping into shops that looked interesting and browsing the wares, but didn't buy anything else. Though there were a wide array of items that looked useful, nothing seemed indispensable, and I was all too aware of my limited funds and even more limited opportunities to earn more.
The sun had mostly set by the time I made my way out of the Alley. After a filling dinner in a secluded booth at the back of the Leaky Cauldron, I cast the Shrinking Charm on the books I'd purchased and packed them into my new backpack, then left Magical London behind for the final time before my first year at Hogwarts.
My mind whirring with anticipation over the morrow, my hike back through Muggle London seemed to take no time at all. Setting up camp in Regent's Park, I let Hedwig out of my tent with instructions to meet me at Hogwarts, then went to sleep without further ado, so that I'd be able to wake up and make it to King's Cross with time to spare.
A/N I recently read a thread on the HPFanFiction subreddit where the consensus seemed to be that Author's Notes should go at the end of a chapter.
I worked myself into a bit of a (more) boring stretch these last few chapters, having abandoned a side plot that I had planned before getting to Hogwarts. Consequently, I hurried along the rest of the summer in this chapter; next one the real action will start!