Chapter 3 – Detour and delay
"Why can't we use the fireplace?" growled Lily with a yawn.
The little girl was sitting on the stairs, a small suitcase at her feet, ready to leave, while her eldest brother was pacing back and forth across the small entryway, only stopping to scribble down notes into his notebook. Harry dropped a large travel bag onto the floor and massaged his shoulder.
"Bill insisted that the fireplace is only to be used for 'Ministry purposes'," he explained.
"Talk about taking a vacation," mumbled James before tripping and swearing over the obstacle.
"We grown-ups don't have the luxury of having two full months off work." Harry checked the clock on the wall. "Where is your mother? We gonna be late…" he whispered as she appeared in the kitchen doorframe with a list in hand, written on a meter long parchment. James' tediousness had to come from someone and it wasn't from Harry.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang and Albus ran down the stairs, but could not proceed to the door due to the amount of things and people on his way. James opened the door to a very breathless and pale boy. Did he run all the way up here from his Dad's manor?
"Am I late?" asked Scorpius.
"Yes, we already left," said James bluntly. "You can see us, but we're not really here."
The young boy froze, pondering weather or not it was possible but Albus, who managed to get through the mess, pushed away his brother to greet his best friend.
"Come in, Scorpius," hurried Mr Potter. "We're leaving soon!"
The Malfoy managed to get his broom inside the house pretty easily, but he had to bend over James' suitcase for them to close the door behind him and his big backpack. They were all but cosy. The scene was pretty much a foretaste of their holiday: lots of people crammed into a tiny little house. They waited in silence, trying not to smell their neighbour's body odour.
"You came on your own, Scorpius?" asked Ginny to fill the awkward silence.
"Nope but Dad preferred not to come say hi. He didn't want us to be late due to 'unnecessary formalities'," repeated Scorpius, though the air quotes were certainly not canon. Draco was too serious for air quotes.
"How thoughtful!" replied Harry before checking the clock one more time. "Okay, come on Everybody, grab your bags, it's time!"
On that word, the minute hand of the clock reached the top and the countdown started. The group tightened up even more around the pile of bags on top of which stood a pink beach bucket. They all started bending the knees, ready to jump on the bright plastic toy. All except Scorpius, who wasn't at the breakfast table this morning when Harry briefed them about the departure at the exact ninth bell stroke.
Six strokes left.
"Grab the bucket," said James to their guest, but Scorpius, who didn't want to be fooled again, shrugged: "Yeah, right! Why don't you carry your own toys yourself, mate?" He seemed pleased by his cleverness to see right through the Prefect-in-chief's bad intentions.
Three strokes left.
"Grab the bucket, Scorpius!" repeated James, slightly annoyed.
Two strokes left.
"GRAB THE BUCKET!" yelled all the Potters in unison and Scorpius finally obeyed as an invisible hook scooped them away, saving them from bumping heads like bulls fighting as they dived all at once on the Portkey.
A few seconds later, all but James and his mother landed face first into muddy grounds. Ginny and her son hovered down with their dignity still intact.
"Was that a –Portkey?", asked Scorpius on the verge of vomiting. "I wasn't ready… I thought we would Apparate there directly."
Harry helped him to stand up to his feet again. "My bad! I thought you knew. The town council put up a magical fence on the area to control the traffic here during summertime. We can only come here using a registered Portkey or a fireplace, and the cottage firepl —"
"Where are we?" cut Ginny. "This is not Tinworth…"
The group turned around to take in the scenery. It wasn't Tinworth at all. Where they should see endless sandbanks spotted with sea lavender, they were standing in a glade in the middle of a forest.
"No, no, no, no, no…" panicked James "This is a nightmare! I have so much to do today! I have to be in Tinworth ASAP!"
"Everybody calm down", said Harry. "Look, there is a cabin right here! Someone might tell us where we are and what happened with our Portkey."
"We might not even be in wizard territory!" screamed James, sweat dropping from his temples.
Ginny rolled her eyes, muttering something like: "I knew this tournament thing was a bad idea…"
Harry left the group to knock on the wooden door; meanwhile James was pondering their options. Wherever they landed, they could still Apparate closer to the magical barrier around the town and walk there. Surely it was possible even thought they would not arrive before dusk to the Cottage by foot. Why in the hell did they ship their broomsticks days ago? James actually knew why, because he was the one to back up his mom on the initiative: their very expensive brooms might get damaged during the Portkey ride. Special owl shipping was safer. The other option was the one they should have go with on the first place: the Floo Network.
"We need to find a fireplace!" concluded James. "If there is a working one in this house, can we go to Filius' house?"
Ginny's eyes widened. "The man is in vacation, James!" she repeated slowly. "I'm not sure he would appreciate having strangers walking in his living room. Especially if one of them is harassing him for a job."
His mom had a point but I wasn't giving up just yet: "What about other people's fireplace? Come on, we're popular! I'm sure someone will be pleased to help the Potter-Weasleys." Ginny rolled her eyes and Lily giggled: "Mom, you could give them an autograph. And Dad would –"
"No –" their mother shut them up before Harry could hear the proposal. He would have been way too enthusiast about meeting his fans.
By the way, the Chosen one was coming back accompanied by an old man holding firmly a wand in his hand. Bless you Merlin, thought James at the sight of the wand.
The owner of the land was wearing a distressed chambray shirt and very short jean shorts. Ginny stepped onto her eldest son's foot to silence his inappropriate laughter.
"You're really not Seraphina," said the strange man grumpily, looking at contained poker-faced Ginny. The man, whom Harry introduced as Mister Hoover, didn't seem impressed to be talking to the great heroes of the Second Wizarding War. Instead he kept asking about his employee: "She was supposed to arrive today at 9am from London! Where is she? It's her first day! I have to show her around, there's a lot to do…"
Nobody really understood what he was saying as he kept chewing at his words in frustration, but James knew the unnerving feeling of time being wasted when important tasks remained undone.
When Harry let him know where they were heading, the man laughed. "Good luck with that! You're not far, but I bet you don't have tickets."
"How far?" asked James as his father asked at the same time: "Tickets?"
"You need tickets for the shuttle to reach Tinworth. These sneaky little beasts of town councillors are only interested in profits! They took the monopole on the transportation network and are forcing vacationers to get on board boring black Muggle coaches. They cost Galleons! No, that it should be a problem for you…" muttered the slightly rude man. "Anyway I'm out of job because of them! The cabs are overbooked but no one calls me, because I don't have the accreditation needed!"
James was loosing his temper. They had to keep moving. The rest of the Weasleys was probably already at the Shell Cottage and he had to be there to make sure everybody's installation didn't counter his plan. Plus he had to be there to take delivery of some very special goods…
"Do you have brooms, Mister Hoover?" cut James.
"Brooms?!" yelled the man, properly shocked by that word. "You're in a stable, young man! We don't fly brooms here! We fly Thestrals!"
"Oh!" said James only then realizing the extent of Mister Hoover's business. He looked around and though he didn't see any animal in the fields behind the small rustic buildings, he noticed that Scorpius was perched upon a gate and petted something invisible in front of him, guiding Albus' hand to reach the animal. Lily, at the mention of Thestrals, grabbed her mother's leg, afraid of the unseen. Scorpius, who lost his mom, was able to see the fantastic beasts, as did his parents who've seen death too many times before.
In a shed, carriages languished under dust, so James asked: "Then, can we hire you for a clandestine ride?"
The man's face lightened up at the possibility of breaking the stupid law and stealing some Galleons from these politicians, but he regained quickly his angry demeanour: "When? Now? Out of question! Muggles will see you! I don't want to loose them. If you're still here when the sun comes down, and if Seraphina is here too, she will take you. She is my new driver. I love my boys but I don't like being up here!" he said gesturing to the sky. "And I don't want to deal with the customs office on the ground."
"That's very kind, Mister Hoover" said Ginny. "Thank you for the offer–"
"That we're not taking!" roared James. "We are not waiting here all day! I'd rather walk there!"
"Go ahead!" spitted Ginny who started to be really annoyed by her son's behaviour.
"Your family will still arrived before you…" warned Mister Hoover. "If it's the waiting part that bothers you, I'm short of hands to clean the stables and you have to pay your commute… Where the hell is Seraphina anyway?!" The man left the group taking a decision on their own and walked back to his house.
James was ranting. Harry took part of the brainstorming, only because the thought of cleaning Thestrals' shit all day made him want to puke. "You're such a baby, Harry." hissed his wife, which made Lily giggled.
Albus came back running and screaming: "Can we ride them, Mom? Please, please, please, please!"
"You can't even see them!" replied Lily and they started fighting on who was the most ridiculous of the two: the one who was obsessed with creatures he couldn't see or the one who was scared of them.
Scorpius, who didn't know how to handle fights between siblings, went lying down on the weeds next to the pile of luggage and his broom. A broom! They had a broom! James ran to the Malfoy, and stood above him, offering him shade from the sun with his own body.
"Can I have your broom, Scorp'?" asked James with as much honey he could pour into his voice. "Pleeeeeaaase?"
"Where is yours?", asked the young Malfoy siting up. He was just realizing nobody had theirs either.
"We shipped them two days ago." Answered Ginny, who joined them with Harry, smelling James' shenanigans, and wanting to let the two little ones end the fight on their own. "Portkeys are dangerous for brooms."
Scorpius examined his broom carefully. "Thank you for telling me, Al." he muttered between his teeth to the absentee.
"So can I have it?" asked again James, but Scorpius was pouting, so he added: "What do you want? A private bedroom for you and your girlfriend is not possible. I have to stay in Auntie Hermione good books. She is the Ministry of Magic, therefor my future boss… By the way, I still don't understand why she can't get me the job —"
"Yeah, me neither." Scorpius said, still thinking about his compensation. "What about a favour? For future use."
Even though James knew he would regret agreeing to a favour that could jeopardise the equity of the tournament, the two boys shock hands. "Deal!"
"What do you have in mind, son?" cut Harry. "You can't fly to Tinworth! The old man was right! The Muggles will see you!"
"Not with your cloak." Riposted James. "Come on, Dad, I know you never travel without it."
"It's not true!" yelled Harry outraged.
James was already delivering a new slave of arguments on the importance of his presence at the Cottage right now. Ginny couldn't handle it more. This was starting to get ridiculous…
"Give him the damn cloak, Harry, or I swear I'm gonna strangle him!" she roared.
Silence followed the outburst of the usually contained mother. At least, mostly, because Albus and Lily were still arguing in the distance. Harry mumbled something inaudible before kneeling to his bag and fetching out the Invisible Cloak.
A sad, childish look was covering Mr Potter's face when he held the shimmering fabric tight to his chest. "It was my Dad's…"
"You did name him James!" Ginny roared, still pissed. "So right back at you!"
Ginny blamed herself for giving in to Harry's request to call their first son after his father. She knew that the famous mischief and the stubbornness of the man may come with the name, and this time again, she wasn't wrong.
James padded his father on the back as he tore the cloak out of his grip. "Thank you, Dad. I will be careful, I promise."
He did feel slightly guilty for abandoning his family on a Theshrals' stable. But he couldn't wait any longer. They left the home at nine, and it was already quarter to noon. He would have to wave goodbye to his power naps to catch up for the time wasted during this detour. He swung his shoulder bag, straddled Scorpius' broom and wrapped himself with the cloak, disappearing from view.
"See you soon!" he yelled before taking off.
The actual flight was hell. The Malfoys may have money, they had terrible taste in brooms and flying under a blanket on a hot summer day was lunacy. But at least, James was in Tinworth. He finally made it to the Shell Cottage; just a couple of hours late and he was, of course, being a pain about it.