The Welshman
by Hyena Cub
Rating: PG-13 for violence, language, and death, especially later on.
Genre: Harry Potter

--

CHAPTER 6: Hogsmeade

Arcturus made an exaggerated 'I'm dying of heat' sort of noise and took off his travelling cloak. The rest of us had already taken off jackets and outer robes and rolled up our sleeve. Arcturus looked at the rest off us, shaking his head in mock despair at our attire. He usually wore robes, claiming that he wouldn't be caught dead in weird Muggle clothing. Ke'koa often offered to test that theory for him, but Arcturus usually declined the offer.

I didn't mind Muggle clothes much; what I wore when I didn't have my school clothes on was usually a mix of Muggle and wizard. Today, for instance, I had a pair of short pants and shirt beneath a long-sleeved robe…though the robe was currently tied bulkily around my waist. Faolan had on half-and-half, too: a pair of worn jeans and a T-shirt beneath a light riding cloak.

Ke'koa preferred Muggle-wear, and had on jeans and a jumper; his jacket was slung over his shoulder. Peter was just wearing a school uniform, minus the tie; to him, clothing was clothing and he rarely brought much normal clothing from home.

'We look like one of the charts in my Muggle Studies class,' said Ke'koa with a snicker. 'You know, those ones that show the difference in Muggle and wizard-wear. A lot of wizards, especially the adults, don't know how to wear Muggle clothing.'

Peter gave a sudden giggle. 'I know,' he said. 'I've seen them try sometimes, especially in areas where they're among Muggles. I once saw a woman wearing a pyjama top and an underslip. She was getting a lot of weird looks.'

'I saw a bloke wearing a kilt and a woman's blouse once,' chimed in Faolan. 'It looked pretty silly.'

'My little brother wears kilts sometimes,' I said. 'But he wears them properly. He says they're a lot more comfortable than trousers.'

'Aw go on,' said Arcturus. 'Most wizards aren't that bad at Muggle dress. If they just research a bit before trying it, it's not that difficult…is that teacher of yours muggle-born, Ke'koa?'

Ke'koa frowned, obviously having to think of the answer. 'Not sure,' he said. 'He might be. Probably. He looks down a bit on purebloods sometimes, but I don't think he means to. Probably just all that anti-mage history.'

We continued our conversation on Muggle clothing all the way into the village proper, where we joined the hoards of Hogwarts students enjoying their first day of real freedom away from the castle. It felt a bit weird to be out in the town without adult supervision, but it sure felt good!

'Where should we go first?' asked Faolan excitedly. 'Honeydukes?'

'No, let's leave that for last,' said Peter sensibly. 'We're all gonna get a load of sweets, we don't want to carry it all over the place.'

'Let's just walk around a bit first,' I suggested. 'See what's here. Then we can decide where to go.'

The others were agreeable to this plan, and we began walking up the main street, looking at the shops in the business district.

I saw several I wanted to check out: Honeydukes' sweetshop, The Three Broomsticks inn, the owl Post office (I'd never seen one), Scrivenshaft's, Gladrags wizardwear…. I also saw there was a Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, a shop started by one of my ancestors—a first cousin four or five times removed or something like that. Anyway, at that point there were four or five WWW shops in the UK now, and it was the most popular joke and novelty chain in the country.

That morning we visited WWW, the Post Office, and Gladrags (where Ke'koa bought a hat with his favourite Creaothceann team on it.) A little after noon, we stopped into the Three Broomsticks for lunch, a bright, clean bar that was absolutely crowded with kids and teachers. I saw Professor Blake there and waved, and saw Professor Melville, whom we avoided. Professor Melville was the Head of Slytherin, and she taught Charms, and was one of the meanest teachers I had ever met. She didn't like Gryffindors at all and wasn't entirely nice to us.

We were lucky. Ke'koa spotted a table in the corner that was recently vacated by a group of sixth and seventh years. He pointed it out and we claimed it for ourselves before anyone else could spot it. I noticed a group of Slytherins looking annoyed, and manufactured a smirk to flash in their direction. One of them made a rude gesture, and they shuffled off.

'All right then,' said Arcturus. 'I'll go get our drinks…I guess everyone wants butterbeers?'

'Not me,' said Ke'koa. 'I want a pumpkin fizz.'

'Butterbeer for me,' said Faolan. I also said I wanted butterbeer, and Peter obviously thought the fizz sounded good. Arcturus gathered the sickles from us for the drinks, then left the table.

'Hogsmeade is brilliant!' Faolan exclaimed as Arcturus left the table. 'The Post Office was just weird. The only place I've ever seen that had so many owls is the owlery at Hogwarts. And those aren't color-coded.'

'Weasleys Wizard Wheezes was the best,' I said. 'Can you imagine some of that stuff? The Diagon Alley premises doesn't have some of the things I saw in there, like the Detectorings and the Invisibility paint.' The Hogsmeade shop was a lot larger than the Diagon Alley shop!

'Here you go, gentleman!' said Arcturus, returning with an armful of bottles, and two mugs held in his other hand. Ke'koa stood and got on of the mugs, his pumpkin fizz, then sat back down.

'Cheers,' I said, grabbing one of the bottles of butterbeer before it fell on the floor.

'Where shall we go after lunch?' asked Peter.

'The Shrieking Shack!' exclaimed Peter. 'It's supposed to be the most haunted building in the United Kingdom.'

'That sounds good to me,' said Ke'koa. 'Even the people who live here are afraid of the place—I'll bet there's nothing wrong with it at all. Why would they be afraid of ghosts, anyway? Most of 'em went to Hogwarts, didn't they? It's full of ghosts.'

'Well, maybe it's not ghosts,' I said. 'Maybe it's…I dunno. Banshees, or inferi or something.'

Peter gave a shudder, his mouth turning down in an expression of disgust. 'Inferi…those are vile. You don't suppose there's really such a thing, do you? The, er, animated dead?'

Arcturus nodded grimly. 'There is,' he said. 'There's such a thing. One of my aunts even knows the spell; she showed me once when I was little. She used it on my cat, who'd died the day before. I'll never forget it.' He tensed for a few seconds, and I thought he might be suppressing a shudder, himself. 'She—my cat that is—was all stiff and unnatural, limping around dragging her back feet. My aunt thought it was the funniest thing in the world.' Arcturus scowled, twisting the cork from his butterbeer bottle and tossing in on the table. His expression was uncharacteristically ugly as he took a sip.

I felt a bit sick, myself. 'What a horrible thing to do to some poor dead body!' I exclaimed in revulsion. I tried to imagine a human being brought to life like that, and couldn't quite do it. I'd never even seen a dead human before, and didn't think I wanted to.

'They're vicious, too, when they're made into inferi,' said Faolan quietly. 'It's a really Dark spell. No decent wizard would use it…probably no decent wizard would even know it.'

'Yeah…she kept trying to bite me,' said Arcturus. 'She never bit.'

'How old were you?' asked Peter, his expression turning from disgust to sympathy.

'Eight.'

'Eight!' Faolan exclaimed. 'She showed that to you when you were eight? Blimey I'm surprised it didn't traumatize you for life!'

Arcturus shrugged a little. 'Had nightmares for weeks.' He took a huge gulp of his butterbeer, looking extremely unhappy.

'Well...in that case,' said Ke'koa in a rather brave attempt to lighten the mood and cheer his friend. 'May a diseased mountain troll fall in love with your dear aunt and follow her to the end of her days.'

A spluttering sound from my left told me Faolan had choked on his butterbeer, Peter made a sound of disgust, and I let out a cackle of laughter. 'A diseased troll?' I repeated in disbelief. Arcturus was looking at Ke'koa as if he'd just sprouted a few extra arms, then started laughing.

'You are disgusting,' said Peter, finally allowing himself to laugh. 'That's revolting.'

'But a fitting punishment,' said Ke'koa, grinning, his dark eyes fixed on Arcturus.

Arcturus, noticing the gaze, nodded. 'Yes…yes, fitting it is. Thanks, mate.'

The mood after that was far lighter, the image of Arcturus's aunt fending off the attentions of a love-sick mountain troll making it impossible to feel too gloomy, but Arcturus's description of an inferius was going to stick with me a while all the same.

'So,' I said when everyone had finished their drinks and were looking restless again. I for one was more than ready to get back to exploring the village. 'Which of you lazy gits can beat me to the Shrieking Shack?'

And before any of them could give a verbal answer, I bolted from my seat, lunging for the door, and escaping out into the crisp autumn afternoon. I heard several outraged shouts at my head start, and looked back to see the pack of them running after me. Laughing, I turned back around and put all my speed into running.

I wasn't the fastest among my mates, but I was quick enough, and I liked to run. I grinned wildly as I coaxed yet more speed from my legs, laughing just because I couldn't help it. The October air was full of magic, with Halloween just around the corner, and the cold wind cleared my mind. I looked back once more to see that Ke'koa and Arcturus were gaining on me, and stuck my tongue out at them, a childish but clear challenge.

Ke'koa laughed and lowered his head, charging at me like a mad bull. I turned back around, rounding a corner and getting halfway down the street before I realized something: I had no idea where I was going. At this thought I literally skidded to a halt in the dusty street, stumbling to keep my balance, yelling in surprise on turning round to see Ke'koa right in my face, looking strangely large for his proximity. Neither one of us could possibly move in time. Ke'koa's expression turned in a second from determination to surprised dismay, before he crashed into me, sending us both tumbling into the dirt.

I yelled as I scraped my hand on a sharp stone and skinned my knees on the dirt street. Ke'koa landed on me, his stout weight driving half the breath from me, then scrambled up into a sitting position, swiping his wavy, dark hair out of his eyes and levelling a tirade at me for stopping like I had. Arcturus caught up to us a moment later, howling with laughter as I sat up wincing and investigating the damage.

Faolan ran up as I was getting my breath back, and Ke'koa was getting to his feet, brushing the dust out of his clothing. I looked sheepishly up as Faolan asked if we were okay; I could see he was bursting to break into hysterical laughter, but was admirably holding it in for the time being.

'Fine,' I said with a sort of laugh as I got gingerly to my feet.

Arcturus was finally calming down enough to ask if I was sure, looking me over to ascertain that I wasn't badly hurt. My knees and hand were bleeding but that was about it.

'We're fine,' said Ke'koa, levelling an exasperated glare at me. 'Though I think Calen's lost his bloody mind! Why the hell did you stop like that?'

I was about to answer when Peter finally reached us, his face red with exertion, his expression concerned. He, too, asked if we were okay, and I assured him that we were. 'I just realized I don't know where the Shrieking Shack is.'

Ke'koa looked at me in astonishment. 'So you just…stopped! Couldn't wind down, or—or give warning, or…?'

Faolan finally started laughing as I shrugged. 'Didn't occur to me.'

'No kidding!' Ke'koa looked around, and I followed his gaze, noticing finally that we were being watched by several other people, including a few shopkeepers and some random Hogwarts students, most of which looked highly amused. I felt my face colour, and Ke'koa rolled his eyes in a theatrical, long-suffering expression.

'All right, you two,' said Faolan with a laugh, putting a hand on each of our shoulders. 'Let's get out of here before you make bigger fools of yourself, huh? If that's possible, I mean.'

Ke'koa pointed the accusing finger as he let Faolan steer us back out of the street. 'This was allll his making.' I couldn't argue.

After that, we made our way at a far more civilized pace, and I finally started laughing about the whole thing, imagining just how ridiculous that must have looked to the spectators. I felt like an idiot, but at least it had been fun.

We turned onto a different street to get away from the people who'd seen us make fools of ourselves, and stopped by a bookshop so that Peter could go in and ask directions to the Shrieking Shack. I took the opportunity to take a handkerchief out of my pocket and wipe the blood from my knees, finally using it to bind my cut hand.

'It's nothing,' I said in answer to Faolan's concerned look. 'Just a few scrapes. Mr Jacey can fix it in a second.' I wouldn't have gone to the nurse for just a couple of scraped knees, but my hand had a good amount of skin scored away by that damned rock, and was bleeding a bit more than was probably healthy. I also wanted him to have a look at my ribs; Ke'koa didn't look it, but he was solidly built, and he'd landed right on top of me.

'You two are filthy,' said Arcturus, brushing at the back of my shirt as I bent over to pull my socks back up.

'At least they weren't cobbles,' said Ke'koa, wincing a bit. 'Now that woulda hurt.'

I grimaced, too; that would have hurt. I suddenly became a lot more grateful it had been dirt and not stones.

Peter came out of the bookstore with a new shopping back that looked like it had a large book in it, and smiled. 'I know the way…let's walk there.'

I laughed wearily. 'What a good idea.'

The shack actually wasn't too far away; only a few blocks. Walking at a sane pace, we got there about twenty minutes later. It was off the extreme east end of the town, near the border of the Forbidden Forest, which extended as far as I could see. It sat on a hill, on a large plot of land that was overrun with weeds and yellow, dry grasses. The place looked like an absolute wreck, but had not fallen in nor been demolished. I supposed the house's reputation kept the vandals away, and that the town kept it here as an item of interest. I was glad; I liked the house at first sight as we stood by the splintered wooden fence that surrounded the property. It was creepy as hell.

'I wonder if there's anyone in there right now,' said Faolan in an awed voice.

I shivered a little, grinning. 'There could be. Those windows are filthy. If anyone was watching us from in there, we wouldn't see them.' I shivered again as the wind gusted, bringing a chilly bite with it. I unwrapped my robe from around my waist and put in on, noting that Faolan and Arcturus were doing the same.

'But if the windows are that filthy, then no one would be able to see out of them, either' Peter pointed out, and I laughed.

'You have a way of ruining my imagination,' I told him.

He only shrugged, smiling a bit. 'Someone's got to keep your brain out of the clouds.'

A new voice behind us spoke up behind us, loud and obnoxious: 'What brain, Weasley? Your family aren't exactly well known for their brilliance!'

I spun around, my face heating up with indignity for the slur on my family name, and was utterly unsurprised to see Gideon and Cuthbert Moor standing there with their arms crossed, flanked by their dormmates, minus Arcturus. Ward Sullivan stood to their left, watching with a mild gaze, and Adair Cadogan to their right, looking even more sadistic than Gideon.

'What the hell would you know?' I demanded, taking an angry step forward.

'About brilliance?' said Arcturus mildly. 'Nothing whatsoever. Trust me. I spend more time in their company that I ever want, and I've not seen signs of sentience yet.'

The smirk disappeared from Gideon's face and he straightened up, narrowing his eyes. Beside him, his brother simply continued to smirk, gazing coolly at Arcturus. 'Better watch your mouth, traitor,' Gideon snarled at Arcturus.

'Yeah, I think you're right,' I said, glaring at Gideon. 'I think they were conjoined twins at birth—attached at the head! They shared a brain, I reckon.'

Arcturus laughed in appreciation. 'That's right. That explains a lot, they've only got half a mind each.'

Gideon snarled, flexing his muscles, and Cuthbert looked at Arcturus hatefully. 'You've got to sleep sometime, Rowle.'

'That takes courage,' said Faolan sarcastically, 'hexing a man in his sleep!'

'Only a Gryffindor bothers with chivalry,' said Cuthbert quietly. 'A Slytherin'll do what's needed.'

'What's 'needed'?' said Peter in disbelief. 'It's needed to hex someone in their sleep just because you didn't like what he said?'

'That's right, fatso,' said Gideon, and I was infuriated to see Peter's face colour pink. 'Keeps you inbred purebloods in your place.'

Ke'koa and I both drew our wands, and the Moor twins did the same. Cadogan and Sullivan laughed as if they were watching an amusing show. Peter's expression went from embarrassed to alarmed, and he hissed, 'Not here, those gits aren't worth it!'

'Yes, that's right!' laughed Ward Sullivan. 'Chicken out! So much for Gryffindor bravery!'

'That's it!' Faolan snarled, and lunged at Sullivan, but Arcturus grabbed Faolan by the riding cloak and yanked him back, making the Slytherins howl with laughter.

'Yes, curb your dog, Rowle!' called Cadogan, and Faolan made a furious sound, releasing the clasp of his cloak and lunging once more at the Slytherins, this time at Cadogan. The 'dog' comment I knew was just a little too close to the truth, and Faolan was always so sensitive; it infuriated me that those miserable louts used that against him! Faolan connected this time, breaking free of Arcturus's grip and tackling Cadogan to the ground.