My mom clutched me close outside the train station, hugging me tightly. I hugged her back a bit, trying to calm her down. Also, fine. Hugs are nice.
Sue me.
"Ma, you know we have to leave eventually, right?" I asked.
"Oh hush!" she hugged me tighter. I looked over at my dad, who was holding Ali. Pops shrugged, looking amused. Ali had his hand inside his mouth.
I'd just come off of the train and into the 'muggle' section of the station, my parents waiting for me. After my mom stopped hugging me, we headed out to the car. Placing my trunk in the back, they asked me questions while I played with Ali in the back. I told them most of the stuff.
No fights or trolls. Or giant dogs. Or-
Look, I kept it as academic as I could.
"You're making lots of friends?" Mom asked curiously, though there was a bit of nervousness to that. And skepticism. I think not mentioning any fights made her suspicious.
"Tons of them. Like more than three," I joked. Then I noticed the look of relief on my parents' faces. "Okay, I saw that. What's up?"
My dad coughed. "Oh. Um. Well, Gar. You've never been great at making friends. Harry is the only one. We were worried."
"Ah. I see." Guess that was a logical worry. "Well, we're eleven now. People are still immature morons, but they're starting to worry about real things for once. You guys will love Hermione by the way."
Yeah, Hermione. My fellow Muggleborn had made plans to meet over the holiday. That was going to be fun.
"Hermione… is a girl?" My mom asked hesitantly.
"Unless she's been lying to me for the past couple months."
"How nice." My mom sounded more excited about that than I expected.
"...I don't like what you're implying."
"I didn't say anything."
"No seriously, you really don't want to imply that."
"Gar…" My mom said it smugly. In that way adults do when they know better than their kid.
"Clearly nothing I'm saying is removing the idea from your head."
"You'll understand when you're older."
My dad grinned at her. Parents. Annoying in both lives.
I'd missed them.
"How about you?" I asked Ali. "You doing all right in all your endeavors?"
He pointed solemnly at my mom. "Mama!"
Mom looked like she was glowing she was so happy.
I nodded. "Well done, Ali. First words are tough. I think mine was…"
"Profit," my dad said, sighing. "Your first word was 'profit'."
In this life, sure.
We headed home, and I basked in the presence of family.
⁴
Danny got home after we'd sat down for dinner. I had some bugs in a pouch set aside for him.
"Potoos aren't a normal bird for wizards?" Pops asked.
"Daby," Ali said, petting the bird as I gave him another cricket. Danny let out a small hoot of pleasure.
"Not really. Don't blame you for thinking that though. Honestly, Pops, wizards are weird. I heard a rumor that all owls in the world are actually messenger birds."
"Really?" My mom placed some curry and rice on the table, looking surprised. "I didn't realize things were so strange in the world."
"Found out more about my side of the family, by the way." My dad said, grabbing a fork. "Your great grand-father was apparently kicked out of his family for not representing their legacy. They had ties to Egyptian nobility going back thousands of years."
"Then he was probably born from a wizard family, but showed no signs of magic," I mused.
"That can happen?" Mom asked.
"It's not uncommon. This whole magic world, it's still very backwards about how it treats things like bloodlines. Very illogical," I grunted. "I'm going to look into putting some defenses in the house."
Mom and Pops shared a look of worry, Pops speaking first. "Gar, are you in some sort of danger?"
"No more than anyone else in the world," I lied. "But hey, I have access to magic now. Why shouldn't I turn our house into a fortress, right?"
"Isn't that against the rules?" Mom asked.
"I'm just gonna buy magical items. Like the wizard version of locks and burglar alarms."
Lie, of course. I'd grab those of course. But the problem with any lock you can buy is that bad guys can buy those too and figure out the way to break them. If my attempts to mess with this universe ended up causing people to come after my family, depending on the usual defenses would be bad.
Mom and Dad still looked a little iffy, but otherwise willing. "Oh and as far as I know, you guys can take advantage of magic items as well. As long as I live with you. Unless Ali has magic."
I leaned over to my baby brother, pressing my forehead to his. "How about it, midget? Feeling like Merlin today?"
"Grrrr!" he chirped happily, grabbing at my cheeks. "Grr."
"Some other time then."
"I did wonder about that," Pops mumbled. "The more I look into my family history, the more I think I shouldn't have."
"What?" I looked at dad, confused. "What do you mean?"
He shrugged. "Nothing to worry about. Just great grandpa being himself."
Huh. I put it aside for now. Best to focus on Diagon Alley. And the fun stuff we could buy, baby!
The phone rang. Mom went and picked it up while I continued to play with Ali. Then she called out, saying it was for me. I got up and walked over. My mom winked as she handed me the phone, which made me want to sigh.
I put it to my ear. "Hey Hermione."
"Hello, Gar," Hermione said fairly formally. "I wanted to confirm when we would meet up to go to Diagon Alley."
"Awesome. I'm thinking tomorrow, early in the morning. If our parents are okay with it of course," I looked at my mom, who nodded, looking very smug again.
"That's fine. 8AM in front of the Leaky Cauldron?"
"Perfect. You sure your parents will be able to? I always thought dentists had busy schedules."
"Usually, but they took some time off from the office so they can go with us," Hermione said, sounding just a bit exasperated.
"...Are your parents doing weird things because you're on the phone with someone of the opposite gender?"
"How did you know?" Hermione asked.
"Because my mom is," my mom shook her head 'no' frantically. "Anyways, see you tomorrow, can't wait!"
I hung up. Mom sighed. "What am I going to do with you, Gar?"
"Ah, don't worry mom. I'm sure Ali will end up being a heartbreaker one day."
The little guy nodded seriously, then tossed a plastic cup in my direction, followed by sneezing out enough snot to fill a swimming pool.
"Yep, he's got the heart of a romantic."
With my plans for tomorrow made, the rest of the night went almost slowly. Dinner, workout, a resupply on certain goods I wanted to bring back to Hogwarts. The next morning, while my mom was still gushing just a bit, we went out to meet Hermione and her parents.
I made sure to bring two backpacks. One would be needed.
They were in front of the Leaky Cauldron when we got there. Hermione was dressed in her usual casual clothes, school nerd chic with a sweater and jacket, and looked adorable, reminding me of my little sister.
Her parents were similar to her, with the same kind of nerdy look to them. Her dad had the same brown hair as her but thinning at the top. He was fairly skinny and taller than my dad by an inch or two. Her mom was tall as well, just barely shorter than Mr. Granger, with darker brown hair and eyes that were green, I could see a lot of similarities between her and Hermione. It was almost eerie.
Hermione was with them, looking around, and her face lit up a bit when she noticed me, waving happily. We all walked over to meet each other, and I held out my fist for her to bump.
"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Ahmed!" Hermione said brightly and politely. "I'm Hermione."
"So cute!" my mom said just as brightly. I rolled my eyes a bit, but looked over at Hermione's parents. They were looking a little awkward.
"It's a pleasure, Mr. and Mrs. Granger," I said as politely as I could while exasperated by my own parents.
Ali, held in my dads arm, politely burbled something, then pulled at my dad's hair for emphasis, Hermione giggling and cooing at him.
After meeting up, we entered the pub and walked through the place to the bricks.
"Does Diagon Alley have other entrances?" My dad asked curiously as I tapped on the stonework.
"Not for Muggles," Hermione's dad, to my surprise, answered. "Wizards use things like the Floo Network or Apparition."
"That can't be true, can it?" I mumbled, thinking. Was there really only one physical entrance? That did fit the wizarding world mindset, but it seemed both secure and unsafe.
The wall didn't give me answers, slipping open. Ali cooed as he watched the walls open up, reaching out for a brick as we walked in.
"So where should we start?" Hermione asked me.
Per the rules of parenthood, the older folks stepped back to let us chat, having their own conversation. I'd been a bit worried about Hermione's parents maybe being racist towards Arabian folk, something my parents had run into before, but they were immediately comfortable with my mom and dad thankfully.
I turned from them to focus on Hermione and pretended that I didn't have a list ready for what we needed. "Well, let's just figure out some stuff for our houses? Some magical shit that will help out the families without being so over-the-top the wizard folk freak out about it."
My mom tapped the back of my head gently. "Language, Gar."
"Yeah, yeah," I looked around, then pointed at one store. "There!"
"Yes!" Hermione grabbed my wrist and pulled me forward. "Come on, come on!"
"You know the store will be there no matter how fast we go, right?"
She had the audacity to roll her eyes and keep pulling me along, and I chuckled just a bit.
We picked up a few things, just some useful odds and ends.
From Gargamel's General Goods we got stuff like sponges that never went bad and produced their own soap, brooms that swept on their own when asked, pots and pans that refused to burn food, and cleaning spray that evaporated dirt on contact.
Also, what the fuck? Gargamel? The lady behind the register was a sweet older woman, but I kept an eye out for any evil old guys with a hate for blue people. There was an orange cat, a fat one, that I eyed suspiciously, but it ignored me.
"If that guy is named Garfield, I'm leaving out the fucken door." I told Hermione seriously, getting a snort from her dad.
After some cleaning supplies, we stopped by Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour and made sure Ali could make a mess on the go. Also, GODDAMN magical ice cream was magnificent.
Wizards are cheating bastards, swear to god.
With confections in hand, we moved on. One of the peddlers at a street stall tried to convince our dads to buy an amulet guaranteed to make your favorite sports team win.
"Do you know the last time the Pharaohs reached the World Cup?" My dad asked me as I pulled him away. "1934! 1934! The only time we got in!"
"Forget the Egypt team, England hasn't gotten above 6th place since 1970!" Hermione's dad was being pushed along by his wife and daughter, looking aggrieved.
"Yeah, well, no one cares about football anyway," I said.
Both dads stared at me. Mr. Granger looked at my dad.
"Did he just-"
"I tried, okay, I tried. He just wasn't interested."
"In FOOTBALL!?"
"Organized sports are only interesting if you can hit the other guy," I said by way of answer, leaving both dads staring at me like I'd committed sacrilege.
After that whole fiasco, we entered a few other shops. We didn't go overboard or anything, but Hermione and I grabbed a few other things. I also paid a wizard at Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment to do some spellwork for me. I left him a Thud board and a few other board games to enchant while we shopped, and I had him give the two backpacks I'd brought to enchant with the Tardis spell.
Yes, the spell had a real name, but I kept thinking of the Tardis when it was used. Point was, the backpacks were bigger on the inside afterwards. I gave one to Hermione and we started filling them.
Wizard magnifying glasses that could see inside living things, a bookmark that made the pages of any book it was inside glow with warm orange light, some texts on spells I wanted to use for the stuff I was selling at Hogwarts, and more.
We even stopped at Gambol and Japes. Hermione scoffed the entire time as I loaded up on dungbombs and fireworks, but she was mollified when I gave Ali a non-explodable balloon that glowed in the dark.
Then we went into Flourish and Blotts. Before entering, I checked my watch.
After leaving, I checked it again. 3 hours. My mom and dad were stunned. Ali was asleep. Hermione's parents were looking both resigned and proud. Hermione was positively vibrating with happiness. And the bookstores shelves were a lot emptier.
Never change, Hermione. Never change.
We enteredSugarplum's Sweets Shop after. And we ran into something that had already happened a few times.
"Hello," Mr. Granger said, speaking to the cashier. "I was wondering about your selection?"
The cashier looked at him. Then at his clothes. His eyes panned across our parents, noting their general appearance, before landing on Hermione and me. His eyes immediately lit up.
"Ah, Muggleborns then?" He reached behind his counter and held out a pair of menus. "There you go. You can look around, but these can help you choose yer fancy, eh?"
Mr. Granger didn't comment on it, but he did eye the man, who continued to speak to Hermione and me instead of our parents.
Once we left with a few sweets though, Hermione's dad had a question.
"Do the shopkeepers seem… well, I don't think you can call it rudeness, but did they seem to ignore us?" he gestured to the parents of the group.
"It's because you don't have magic," I said, burying the lead.
Hermione winced. My parents shared a look, while hers looked a bit more shocked.
"I don't think- I mean-" Hermione cut herself off. "...I don't think they're doing it on purpose..."
"They don't have to." My dad mumbled. "So they look down on people without magic?"
"Of course they do," I sighed. "Some wizards just see the ease in which they live their lives with magic and pity the poor Muggles who live such savage lives in comparison."
We stopped by a fountain and took a seat at one of the public tables. Hermione's mom looked uncomfortable. "Is that really so common?"
"It's better than outright hostility," my mom told her. "Barely. I remember when I was learning English and we just moved here. People acted like I was a child sometimes."
"And then there is the hostility," my dad said. "I quickly learned some jobs wouldn't hire me based on my name alone."
Hermione's dad shook his head. "Shameful. Absolutely shameful."
"It is what it is," I said simply. "So far I'm just glad we didn't run into outright racism. People ignoring you guys and helping us is better than the alternative."
"Alternative?" my mom narrowed her eyes at me. I realized I'd said too much.
"...There is some small amount of racism in Hogwarts," I said simply. "Towards muggleborn folk. Slurs and such."
"Violence?" my dad asked, Hermione's dad narrowing his eyes.
"Violence? Never at Hogwarts," I lied. "The teachers keep an eye on things. And besides, there are lots more good people at Hogwarts than bad. Miles more really."
"It's true," Hermione said excitedly. "The teachers are always there to help everyone too!"
"Most of them are," I poked Hermione in the forehead with a grin. "Or you going to tell me Snape is helpful?"
"W-Well he's very knowledgeable," Hermione stuttered.
"Knowledge doesn't mean 'good teacher', or Binns would be headmaster no matter how dead he is."
"He's dead!" Hermione's mom looked horrified. "You said he was teaching you History! What happened?"
"It's fine, he's been dead for a while and it hasn't stopped him from showing up to class."
My mom blinked, confused. "I don't understand."
"He's got a great work ethic for a ghost, despite how goddamned boring he is," I chuckled. "But yeah, Hogwarts is good. I'll make fun of Snape and Binns all day, but everyone else is an absolute champion of knowledge."
Although, we hadn't run into Trelawney yet.
"Just promise me you're safe," Hermione's dad pulled her into a hug and gave her a kiss on the top of her head. "Okay?"
"I am, daddy."
After that, we hung out for a bit longer before getting up to head to the next place. While walking, my mom pulled me back and let the others get ahead a bit, before looking me over.
"You're lying."
"I do sometimes," I said without admitting anything.
She narrowed her eyes. "Gareth. I know how smart you are, don't try to hide anything. What is going on at that school?"
"Nothing that doesn't normally happen ther-"
She poked me in the forehead hard, cutting me off. "Stop being a smartass."
I rubbed at my forehead and scoffed. "Look, Ma, Hogwarts is fine. They have a magic nurse even if something does happen."
My mom crossed her arms. "Gareth, I didn't ask about the hospital there. I didn't ask what 'normally' happens there. Are you going to be safe in that school?"
"..." A whole host of sarcastic and half-truth answers filled my head. Instead I went for honesty. "Hogwarts does have dangers, magical ones. And the wizarding world as a whole isn't safe. But mom, that's just how the world is."
That was a fact. If I didn't get attacked for being a muggleborn in the wizard world, I'd be in danger for other reasons in the muggle world. If a troll could kill me, a car might run me over. The world is dangerous everywhere, magic or not.
She seemed to understand what I meant, but she was also looking worried. "Gar, if you'll be in danger there…"
"I am as safe as I would be at any given public school in London, but I'm getting taught how to deal with danger too," I explained quickly. "Ma, the teachers do everything they can to keep us safe. By the time I graduate, I'll be able to survive anything short of a nuke or a tax collector. Everywhere is dangerous, but Hogwarts will at least teach me how to fight those off."
My mom pursed her lips. We walked along, following the others at a distance, ignoring the sea of magic folk around us. I was feeling a little awkward, so I ended up talking just to try and get past it.
"You okay?"
"No," my mom sighed. "I worry about you. You've always run into trouble, Gar. Sometimes I'm proud of it. You've never let bullies get away from things in front of you. But you have to know how terrifying it is to see you run towards danger instead of away from it."
"...I know."
She sighed again. "Just, don't forget that we're here for you and we love you. So you have to come back to me, okay? Promise me."
"I promise. I'm not going to get killed out there."
It didn't look like I'd helped her worries. But what could I do? I could die anytime. We all can. Humans live with the threat of death as a rule. There was a reason Voldemort's bitch ass was so worried about it that he'd ended up becoming one-seventh of a person.
My mom and I walked in silence, joining the others, leaving that whole conversation unresolved.
Author's Note: I hope I'm covering things people find interesting here? I'm gonna have a bit more between Hermione and Gar next chapter of course, beyond them doing things like buying what they need, but it was important to me to that the two muggleborn families discuss some basic issues with wizard culture.
They'll still be buying some useful things. Gar needs the ingredients to get started on the Animagus stuff for example, and I'm sure you guys can think of other useful stuff they can grab. Without breaking their budget of course.
Next chapter, as always, will be on my , but it will be up faster now that I have more time. Sorry for the delay.