AN; Something went wrong with the last chapter, which I had to repost yesterday since it had disapeared. I does mean you had to wait not nearly as long for this chapter and with all the postive reactions there are aparently enough people who do like it. Thank you for telling me that.

Disclaimer; You know, I know so why state the obvious? I don't own Harry Potter and any of the other characters.

Chapter 3

For the Dursleys the time following their move was odd and hectical, and well if it was to them, Harry could not escape it. After arriving in their new home on Saturday afternoon they spent the rest of the weekend unpacking. Even Vernon and Dudley joined in; although Dudley only unpacked the telly, and the rest of his toys. By the end of those days's the kitchen had the most essentials, Dudley's room was done while Harry still had a closed box with his stuff in his room. The house did not have a cupboard, and with some of the visits they expected the Dursleys would not have put him in it either. So now Harry was the proud owner of the smallest bedroom, just a 3x2 m, but it was a real room. It had a window, so he would be able to read without his magical light. He had a bed, with three drawers under it to put his stuff in, bookshelves above his bed, were he could put his schoolbooks, none of the ones that had belonged to his mother though. A shelf next to the door on table height and a simple stool, it was more than he had ever expected to get from the Dursleys. On Monday many official things had to be finalised, they had that dreaded visit from the school nurse, interview at the school, registered at the town house, contacted a general practitioner and dental practice, and were quite peeved to hear that Harry had do come along on the introduction visit, after Christmas.
When the shops had opened Monday afternoon Petunia dragged Harry along on her project; 'getting to know the local shops' so they spent the afternoon going in and out of all the shops in the shopping centre two blocks away. After that they spent two hours in the supermarket/grocery store, being amazed about the differences with a British supermarket. There were so very many different vegetables and fruits, the breakfast section had more than 5 different kinds of peanut butter, chocolate spreads and chocolate sprinkles. Yoghurt was sold in litres, just like something called vla, and scones could not be found. And well, most of it wasn't appreciated by Dudley; the yoghurt was to sour as it had no sugar added, so Harry got to eat his portion. Nor was the orange juice sweetened, so Harry got it. Actually a lot of things contained less sugar. But Dudley compensated with lots of candy and soft drinks. And Harry didn't mind since in the trial period he got loads of extra food and some things stayed. He now got to drink the 'sour' orange juice and had a portion of yoghurt daily because the Dursleys didn't like it so Harry would not like it either. If they had to feed him it certainly wouldn't be the good stuff.

What neither the Dursleys nor Harry knew was that most of the wards had not moved with them. Actually, they didn't know anything about the wards at all. But there had been wards, the bloodwards supplemented by all the normal protective wards; fire wards, flooding wards, thieving wards, unwanted visitors wards. And the a bit more uncommon ones like wizard repelling wards, owl repelling wards. And none but the bloodwards had moved with them since the others were all bound to the house instead of the people. Not that the Dursleys noticed; no one knew they had moved, knew where they lived, had muggle fire detectors and owls are not that good at finding people overseas if they have not been told to do so. Thus sometimes a single owl with fan mail might show up, but that was not much of a problem if the Dursleys didn't see it. Although Harry didn't understand why he was receiving praise, small gifts and thank you notes from strangers, all he could determine was that he had defeated you-know-who. And he didn't know who that was, nor would he learn anytime soon.

This years Christmas was not that much with the moving and all and it passed quite fast, without Harry being taunted about not receiving any presents. With the passing of the Christmas holiday Dudley and Harry were starting at their new school. Harry in first grade, Dudley in Kindergarten. Harry had been given some first grade end of year tests just before Christmas by his old school to determine if he could handle it and aunt Petunia hadn't dared to protest. And maybe his ridiculous grades would drop, and at least Dudley wouldn't be dragged down by his presence since the reluctant recommendation certainly wasn't because her Duddidums was lazy or stupid! So Harry started in first grade after Christmas, skipping a year, and quickly found his place in the group. Without Dudley to scare away potential friends, since Dudley didn't even have recess at the same time, there were children interested in playing with him. Something completely alien to Harry, but after the initial shyness he happily played along. During class he now studied arts, math, social studies, technology, sciences, social and psychical education and languages; English, Dutch and he had chosen to add French as well. He made some friends, although he was never allowed to take someone home or play at their house, he could play during recess. After school he would be dropped of in front of the house and take of immediately again, to the library he had found on one of his wanderings and the playground next to it. Dudley usually went to a playground closer to home and didn't bother Harry if he was there. Not that Dudley liked the Netherlands; he no longer had his gang of loyal followers and the local children didn't understand him at all, or they didn't react to his commands. Not that Dudley paid any more attention in the Dutch lessons for it, why should he pay attention at school at all?
Harry did pay attention, and especially in the language classes. He had noticed very soon that the local library had exactly 4 shelves with English books and none of those were children's books. So he tried to learn as fast as he could, tried to remember all. Combined with the 'independent study'; working his way through Dutch children books, some of the ones for the very young, others for children just learning to read and even some a bit more difficult. He'd sit at a table with a dictionary next to it, looking up all the words he didn't know.

His aunt still expected him home at 5, to help with chores and making diner. And his evenings he studied his schoolbooks, the three storybooks he had and the children dictionary and encyclopaedia. But those he knew soon by head. At least that was what he did the first month, after that he got his aunt to sign the permission form for school library books. With that permission he could now take the books he was reading in the lunch break home, to read in the evenings, usually English ones.
And when you study very hard, results definitely can be measured. After three months in the library he decided to try to speak with the children in the playground. And they understood him! So no he played for an hour or so every day and practiced his speaking and after that he sat down in the library to read some more, he started learning to read the phonetic scripts as well, now he didn't have to ask his teacher about how to pronounce all the words he had learned the previous day.

Well, as you might have expected his grades didn't suffer from skipping a grade so the normal scenes unfolded again in the new house at the end of the year; yelling, lashing out and being locked up. And once he was let out again he had to help with all the chores like cooking, gardening, cleaning and laundry. He did get a lot of practice in keeping his face blank during the weeks leading up to his birthday; he kind of had to if he didn't want his aunt to notice his excitement.
A big surprise waited for him the morning of the morning of his birthday though, an owl was hovering in front of the kitchen window. With some fumbling he managed to untie the parchment from its leg and had just send it away before his aunt arrived downstairs. With the parchment almost burning under his shirt he had to cook breakfast, eat his miserable piece of crust and a bit of old cheese, make the beds, hide the letter with the others, clean the table, weed the garden and clean the bathroom before finally being able to read the letters.

The letter that came by owl turned out to be send by Gringotts, the wizarding bank. It was written on beautifully monologued parchment and included a little gold key.

Dear Mr. Potter,

Your parents will stated, among other things, that besides your trust vault a personal vault was to be created in the event of their deaths. The key to this vault is attached to the letter, presented to you on your 6th birthday as stated in the will.

At the moment this vault contains 223 Galleons 14 sickles and 3 knuts.

We hope to see you at Gringotts,

Kind regards

Irongrip, Will services

Gringotts? Galleons? Well, he could remember reading about galleons, there was a picture of a yellow, flat, round thing with it, a coin, money maybe? And sickles and knuts as well?
He put the letter aside and continued with those of his parents, soaking up their love and their advice. His mother this year talked about her favourite shops in something called Diagon Alley; a pub called the Leaky Cauldron on Charing Cross road, London, Flourish and Blots bookstore, Jeanines All Day Wear, a lovely clothes shop and The Junkshop were one might find anything.
His father's letter did say something about the Gringotts letter; if your mother and I are both dead you should receive your key to a personal vault in Gringotts today. It is al yours, save something for an unexpected emergency maybe? An addition to you pocket money, to buy prank items or like your mother books? If it would be mine I definitely would be begging my guardians to take me to Diagon Alley immediately.
So it was money, but he could only guess where Gringotts was, Diagon Alley probably. But he did not know what if it wasn't there? It also was about him being heir to the Potter family, inheriting a lordship, about him needing to learn how to be a head of the family. Let's just say that Harry didn't exactly understand what his father mend, nor what it implied. The rest of the letter contained some stories about nice pranks he had done with the marauders, about his parents, Harry's grandparents, and childhood. Just some nice things to read really. And it was quite long letter. This year it included two books; 'Do's and don'ts in wizarding Britain' and 'The Potter rules of conduct'. Not the most inviting titles would you say? But his father had wanted to read them, had asked to compare them with each other and live by the standards set in the books. So he read them, analysed the differences and gained some insight in what it mend to be a Potter.

The rest of the holiday he spent again like the first weeks; lots of chores. But he did manage to get away on afternoons often enough. But than again, even Petunia doesn't have an endless supply of chores, and Harry did learn to perform them good and fast.
So Harry played at the playground with the Dutch children, spent hours in the library reading Dutch books, all in all he did learn to speak Dutch quite well in record time. And since he was quit young yet he did get his mouth to form the odd sounds special to the Dutch language, the sounds that most foreigners have great problems to pronounce. In the evenings he committed his father's books to memory and analysed them. Not that it took more than two times reading them, he might even have stopped at one, but it was not like he had much else to do after dinner. He kind of had finished all of Dudley's books already.

Halfway august school started again, Harry started 2nd grade and was tested into the advanced Dutch class. As far as advanced goes with 2nd and 3rd graders. He continued his French and all other classes, developing a liking for music and sciences. He returned to his previous schedule again, chores, school, playground, library, chores, you know. And with each week he used the dictionary less and less while reading the Dutch children books. In the beginners level books at least he knew most words, he just had to practice more, speak more and construct his own sentences.

When aunt Petunia heard about his 'exceptional' skills in Dutch she started taking him along on shopping trips more often, expecting him to be able to translate everything. 'Get me this', 'Ask for a bigger one' or 'What is this exactly?'. Tallying all mistakes and 'I don't know aunt Petunia's, to be punished at home. And one of her taunts about a walking dictionary finally gave him a way to avoid those punishments; learn the dictionary by head! And he tried, a pocket sized English-Dutch dictionary and even with his photographic memory that took him three months, not that he knew that it was called photographic. And he had seen 'De dikke Van Dalen', the most complete, multiple volumes Dutch-Dutch dictionary the library had; he would need years to memorise those. So he left it at that, took the punishments as they were. Aunt Petunia would probably make up new reasons otherwise anyway. It was not like he could ever do something good in her eyes, or she would ignore it, pretend that he wasn't there. Almost like it would hurt her to acknowledge his accomplishments. Harry didn't care that much though, his parents would have appreciated, his teachers did and that was all that mattered.

When December came round this year a new round of packing started; they were moving again, this time Italy, Turin. London had decided a couple of weeks ago that they wanted Vernon to replace the current representative there for a year, as she was pregnant and would go on maternity leave coming March. Actually Amsterdam had stated a preference for another representative so the one that would otherwise have gone to Turin now replaced Mr. Dursley, while he got the temporary job in Italy. So it happened that Harry was packing stuff they could do without for a while and Dudley was unpacking enormous amounts of Sinterklaas gifts. Harry had gagged when he saw Dudley pestering his parents about celebrating Sinterklaas, or officially St. Nicholas, a Dutch celebration were Sinterklaas visited from Spain every year to enjoy his birthday here by giving out gifts to children, accompanied by his black painted errand boy's. But Dudley hadn't known all that, he only heard presents. Not that he was ever short on presents; he got loads on his birthday, on Christmas and actually had the most junk already. He had made a scene last year because he couldn't bring all of his toys, broken or not.

With a lot less time to prepare and plan Petunia was happy that a house would be provided, the family now coming to the Netherlands had already found a house in Turin that the Dursleys could move in now. The boy's were easily be transferred to the international school in Turin, some paperwork for her and the school here and it was done an advantage of the boys being so young and already attending an international school. She reused the packing plans from last year; all she had to do was change the dates. In February Harry's free time diminished to breaks and recess, the rest was spent packing all kinds of things in boxes. Finally done right on schedule, not that there was any chance of something else with aunt Petunia hurrying him along, with a planning that relied only on his spare time and a bit of Petunia's and Petunia didn't have a time limit, she had to do so little that she could take the time she needed. To his great surprise Harry received on his last day of school a goodbye gift from his teacher; a Dutch fairytale book. He had gotten a gift and now owned 7 books already! And he could publicly show it since the Dursleys knew about it and hadn't taken it from him, Dudley had received one too so it was not necessary.

In the last week of February they moved, so that Vernon could start the first of March. Harry and Dudley had to start at their new school real soon as well, they had been exactly three days there, of which two day were weekend, when they were introduced in their new classes. Here the Dutch lessons were replaced by Italian, it being Italy and all. Harry diligently started studying again, although he had to help his aunt for the first weeks with unpacking. His time in Italy soon seemed to be a lot less nice than the Netherlands had been, he had trouble locating a library, Dudley got a foothold with a group bullies in school, his aunt was often angry since people in the neighbourhood didn't speak English, or only very little and she took that out on him. He did manage to make her sign the school library form again, and he had a big room, the smallest in the house was bigger than the one he had occupied in the Netherlands. While the Dursleys did appreciate the location, the absolutely loved the weather near the Mediterranean and had wanted a vacation home on Majorca, the job Vernon now had was only temporarily so it was not as prestigious. So to say that all of them were in a bad mood the first few weeks wouldn't have stretched the truth too thin, and with Vernon being his unreasonable self Harry had to stay away or duck his hand. You can safely say that the first months in Turin, leading up to his 7th birthday were not fondly remembered. He spent as much time as he possibly could away from home. Most of the time busy with learning the language, which seemed easier this time, but he could not tell if that was because Italian is easier, because he now had experience in learning a language or because his skills in English, Dutch and that bit French provided him advantage. But with the weather the Dursleys changed as well, for the better. Making living through the holiday a lot better than he had expected based on their behaviour in the time leading up to it.

His 7th birthday came and went without any special incidents; the Dursleys ignored it and he received his yearly portion of love. He received another letter from Gringotts, an account update, adding approximately 6 galleons of interest to his vault. Combine that with his mother's letter about magical creatures mentioning the goblins running the wizarding bank and he now knew for sure what it was and that it was located in Diagon Alley. Harry was definitely was fascinated by many of the creatures and fantastic beasts, and not only because his mother seemed to be. His father told about the ministry of magic, about Hit Wizards, Aurors, policemen of the wizarding world, like James had been. And about unspeakebles, which his mother had been, who from what he understood, were researchers and the information network in one. Complaints about the department of magical creatures; they treated them like dirt and dangerous while many of those 'beasts' had their own civilized communities, were completely misunderstood and not dangerous at all if the proper precautions were taken. He told about the nobility and their place in society, about blood purity and the prejudices about those of lesser and muggle blood. It was a very interesting letter and went well with the book he send; 'Who's who in wizarding Britain', which was something called a self updating guide, containing detailed biographies of people in all kinds of important positions and functions, hell Harry himself had a biography in it. It did explain the fan mail and countered the car crash story his aunt and uncle told him a couple of years ago.

When aunt Petunia announced a couple of days later that they would go on a holiday to Britain, well announcing? 'Pack some clothes for yourself and Dudley, enough for two weeks. We'll be visiting Aunt Marge in Britain' was all she said. Here he saw his chance; he could sneak away and visit the wizarding world. His mother had told him about the Leaky Cauldron, the entrance to Diagon Alley, and how to find it! So Harry ended up being just as exited about this trip as Dudley. How lucky he was that they knew no one yet to leave him with! Now he got to see real wizards, goblins and maybe some other creatures as well. He could look around in Diagon Alley, see all those wonderful shops and items his mother mentioned last year, he could buy books with the money from the vault he owned. It would be great.

Most of the holiday was, to Harry's great misfortune, spent at Aunt Marge's. And she was delighted to stet the dogs on him, to talk about bad habits in dogs and bring him down in any possible way. He had to hide out in one of the trees in the garden for more than an hour when she had sent Ripper after him. So he often took off to the nearest village after breakfast, finding a public library where he could read, and was completely happy with being left behind while the Dursleys and Marge went on one or other trip.
The lasts three days were spent in London though, sharing a hotel room with Dudley. This was what he had been waiting for, looking forward to for two whole weeks. He woke up early, managed to sneak away, skipping breakfast in the process. He had gathered pennies from the floor the past week; almost no one takes the trouble to pick them up again. And now he had the money to pay for a metro ticket.

Finding the Leaky Cauldron was tricky; he almost walked past it, seeing it at the last possible moment. Sneaking in unnoticed turned out to be quite easy, he was seen but everyone thought he belonged with one or other party eating breakfast at tables. He first tried to follow an elderly lady, but she went to the toilet and not the alley. It took him a minute or two, but he located the door, now all he needed was someone to follow in. Harry positioned himself a bit out of sight and with another minute was able to follow someone into the actual Diagon Alley without being asked who he was, where he was going, and where his parents were. Once there he was stunned, it was wonderful! His mother's letters did say so, but he hadn't been able to accurately imagine it. He hadn't come close! Walking down the not yet too busy Diagon Alley, wide eyed and trying to see all at once, he found Gringotts easily, the white marble building with the proud lettering didn't leave much to chance.

Once inside Gringotts it was no trouble at all to get to his vault, all the goblins asked was his name and key. In that point they are definitely different than humans, since the vault setup allowed Harry to take money out of it without parental consent they didn't ask any questions, he was just taken down to his vault. The cart ride was a wonderful experience for the boy who had never before been to an amusement park. He did ask the goblins some questions though; his curiosity almost consumed him by now.
'Sir, could you tell me about the value of galleons please? How much sickles in a galleon, how much does a normal book cost, how many pounds make a galleon?' It would definitely be useful to know how much 200 galleons were worth, how much he had to take out to be able to buy some books.
The goblin did look a bit startled at this question or maybe it was not this specific question but the humane way this boy treated him, but answered none the less; 'Well, there is 17 sickles in a galleon, 29 knuts in a sickle and the current exchange rate to pounds comes down to £5,23 a galleon. Books can differ quite a bit, a second hand book might be 2 sickles while some of the new, specialised and self updating books might be 45 galleons, but a normal new book cost approximately 2 galleons.' While he deftly brought the cart to a halt before vault number 903 'We're here Mr Potter, key please' and when Harry had produced it he proceeded by sticking the tiny key in the lock, turning it and opening the vault. 'Your personal spending account sir, you will gain access to your trust vault when you are accepted within a magical school.' The goblin told him when Harry stepped inside. Within the vault were some neat piles of gold coins, next to that a tiny pile silver ones and in the corner three lonely bronze coins the size of a 2 pence pieces. He gathered around 50 galleons in his backpack before realising that it would be convenient if there were any other magic places and branches of Gringotts. He probably wouldn't be able to return in quite some time. 'Sir, is it possible to access my account abroad? In Italy or France?' he voiced his question to the goblin who was waiting politely just outside the vault. 'There are magical places there too isn't it?' he added as an afterthought.
'Of course there are magical places there sir, and Gringrots has branches in almost all countries, Rue Magique is actually one of the main branches. You can withdraw money at any of our branches, just bring your key. And owl order catalogues usually cover all of Europe if that is what you're interested in.' the goblin supplied, giving Harry a bit of new information to work with as well. Deciding if that was the case he definitely wouldn't need to take any more he closed the backpack and let the goblin take him back up. With a smile and a polite; 'Thank you Sir' he took of again, never seeing the surprised and a bit calculating look the goblin gave him. The goblin had unnerved Harry a little, he was so used to being able to know, feel what other people were feeling, which he couldn't with the goblins. The whole Alley triggered his senses but the witches and wizards still gave individual readings, he knew how they felt and even some items had feelings here, but not the goblins.

The first thing Harry tried to find next was places were they sold those trunks mentioned in one of his father's letters. A bit down the Ally he found what he was looking for; a shop called 'Travel equipment, Trunks, tents and more for the whole family'
Inside there was a whole wall lined with trunks, 7-in-1, 3-in-1, Hogwarts Trunks, Travel trunks, Custom Trunks, but they all seemed to be so big. He'd never be able to drag one of those around. The cards in the Travel one did say it contained locking and self-shrinking charms, maybe he could use that one. None of the others said anything about shrinking. By then the shop clerk had finished with a family buying a Hogwarts trunk and came over to Harry; 'Can I help you young one? You seem to be awful small to be here on your own.' He inquired, inspecting Harry and his muggle clothing.
'I'm seven!' Harry replied indignantly, distract him and he might forget. That sometimes worked with the Dursleys. 'I may choose myself, and mum is browsing Flourish and Blotts' He continued, hoping it was enough. Luckily it was, the clerk smiled indulgently at his pride. 'What kind of trunk are you looking for then?' Here Harry wasn't really certain yet, what he did know was that it had to be able to shrink, the trunks displayed here were way to big to hide from his aunt and uncle. So he stated; 'it needs to shrink, for me and not with anyone's help.' And hoped that the clerk could help with such vague requirements. He hadn't needed to worry though, the clerk answered promptly with just that. 'Well, Travel Trunks can do that for you. It can either become a shoebox size, or the size of a pack exploding snap cards. I've got a regular sized one for 3 galleons, you can add rotatable shelves or drawers for 4 sickles and I've got the expanded model, that one can hold 3 times as much as the regular one, 5 galleons and 8 sickles for shelves, drawers or both.' He told Harry, who definitely didn't understand the rotatable shelves. But the clerk probably had seen the same puzzled look on other people and continued before Harry could ask. 'Rotatable shelves are six normal shelves, but it would be difficult to take something off the shelf at the bottom without disturbing the things above. So the shelves can switch places, rotate. There will be a button to do that, really easy.'
By now Harry had a wide smile; he would be able to hide lots from his aunt and uncle now! 'The regular one with shelves than please.' The regular would be more than enough; it would take years to fill it all with books. Soon Harry was the proud owner of a locked, shrunken, sturdy oaken Travel Trunk. And the shrinking part was very easy; all you had to do was put your hand on it and say 'Shrink', 'Shrink twice' and 'Enlarge'. He loved magic!

Now it was time for Flourish & Blotts, admiring the windows of the shops he passed. Especially the magical menagerie drew his attention, loads of animal sounds came out of it and he could see some through the opened door. But he would not be able to keep a pet at the Dursleys so he walked past it, to Flourish and Blotts. Curious he entered the bookshop, it was packed. Shelves were going all the way to the ceiling and multiple stories, all loaded with books. Harry just walked around, trying to find the history section. That was where he had decided to start; he would study history and hopefully learn a bit about the odd words he had found in his parents letters and book. Before he found it he came across a section named Quiddich and took a quick peek in one of the books to find out what the word mend. As it turned out it was a sport and he picked a book titled 'Quiddich through the ages'to buy. Next was a section called Hogwarts, where some older children were gathering piles of books. When he went up the stairs he came to sections called Transfiguration, Charms, Runes, Potions, Warding, Healing and all kinds of expertises. Somewhere to the side he found the History section, apparently not a favourite among witches and wizards. Here he picked up 'Modern Magical History' and an enormous tome called 'Magical History since the 9th century' which was quite expensive but it was very detailed. That book alone would probably be enough, so he wandered some more. The third floor were novels, and in the children's section he choose three books of 'The adventures of Casius', about a young wizard, a book called 'The travels of Merlin', 'Williams Wildlife Reserve'and 'Fairytales and legends' a book mend to be read aloud as bedtime stories. Once back downstairs he browsed the bookshelves there, finding a children section there as well where he added some more books to his shopping basket; 'The muggleborn guide to the magical world', 'Potions for dummies', 'Your talents under your control', 'Young Wizards Dictionary' and 'Young Wizards Encyclopaedia' The back wall was a section simply called; Abroad. Here some other books made it into his basket as well; 'An appraisal of magical education in Europe', 'The international community of Atlantis', 'A guide to magical France', 'A guide to magical Italy', 'A guide to magical Europe' which was not really thicker than the specialised two so probably less detailed. But well, he didn't know were they would be living next year, did he? Although he had heard his aunt and uncle talk about Paris. By now he thought to quite complete selection of books. All he needed to know for now, maybe ask if they had those owl order services the Goblin mentioned, if they could explain it to him. So he went to the counter and waited for his turn. His selection did raise a couple of questions but when he waved in the general direction of a couple of witches as being his mother they were accepted. And they didn't make trouble when he asked for the Owl order thing either, he just added a thick catalogue with a quick; 'explanations are in it if your mother doesn't know.' He paid 43 galleons and 6 sickles for the books and with that he was done. He expanded his new trunk in a corner, stowed the books in it and shrunk it to its smallest form, placing it in his now almost empty backpack. 'Maybe it is smart to get a purse or so for my money' he mumbled to himself and went out on the alley again, looking for a place to buy that. It took a bit of searching but eventually found little leather bags that were apparently used for this purpose, he bought one that could hold his remaining three galleons and fourteen sickles and quite a bit more, as it was what was called a bottomless moneybag.

Since he had finished his shopping he decided to make his way back, stopping at a street vendor selling pastries since by now he was quite hungry. And well, he probably wouldn't get anything for a while yet. Harry made it into muggle London while eating and carefully sought his way back trough the busy metro system. He did need to ask for help to find the correct train, but he knew from experience that elderly ladies usually didn't mind that at all if you asked nicely. When he arrived back at the hotel it was just 12 o clock and the Dursleys weren't there, as expected. He entered the room he shared with Dudley and began reading. He started reading the first book that he got in his hands; 'Potions for dummies', probably not the most logical place to start if you want a basic understanding of the magical world. But then, he had them all and would read them all before long. And definitely before he had any contact with the wizarding world.