(AN: Hey guys, sorry for the late update, been busy with work but also got absorbed into Persona 5 Royal and did not think I would have to sink so much time into the game in order to 100 percent it. Anyways, here's the newest chapter.)
Four days after Harry had finally awoken, he was sitting downstairs eating lunch with Ashleigh, something they had now started to do every day since. Of course, she still refused to call him by his name, but at least she wasn't completely ignoring him like in the past.
"Since its Thursday," the woman had suddenly begun, "I get a shipment of items in Ramble Alley, normally I just have Minnie go to inspect them before taking them here, however, since you've been couped up for almost 3 weeks now, I figured you'd enjoy the experience of our version of Diagon."
"Really!?" Harry nearly jumped from his seat in excitement.
"Mhmm," the woman muttered into her coffee, "Once you're done eating go and get ready, dress nicely, I don't want to see any of those oversized clothes you've got. Kid's these days and their "Fashion"." the woman muttered the last part to herself, but Harry still heard, and with a grimace he decided not to correct the woman on the hand me downs from his cousin.
With gusto he finished his meal as fast as he could, before running back to his room, and quickly began to throw on his robes, he moved to leave the room, only to double back and grab his money pouch. He then raced out of the room with a smile on his face.
"I said dress nicely," she stared at his plain black robes with a quirked eyebrow. "Whatever, it'll do."
She turned away from the approaching boy, walking towards the fireplace. He watched as she grabbed a pinch of floo powder, throwing it into the fire with a flourish, "Step in and say, Ramble Alley, Thunderbird's Den."
"Where's that?"
"In New York, Manhattan to be exact. As for the Thunderbird, I suppose you could say it's the main entrance to Ramble, been there for a few generations now. Came from the same house as me in Ilvermony."
"Ilvermony?" Harry asked, the name sounded familiar.
"It's the main school here in the states, founded by a Muggle as well, or No-Maj as most over here call them."
"I thought you went to Hogwarts."
She grinned and flicked her hair, "I was too much of a genius for Ilvermony at the time, graduated in my third year. Got an apprenticeship with the Defense professor at Hogwarts, some things happened, and I became a regular student instead. Of course, at the time it was fairly easy to do something like that, Ilvermony was far from what it is now, they didn't have any educational reforms until the second war. Now we're consistently in the top 10 and 5 for some subjects."
Harry filed away the information for later, quietly wondering what happened with her apprenticeship. For now, he simply walked to the fireplace, shouting, "Ramble Alley, Thunderbird's Den." as he stepped in.
"Harry!" A joyous voice sounded as Harry finally spun to a stop, "Good to see you again, Kid."
Jackson was sitting at a nearby table, waving a tankard of frothy ale at the boy. Harry smiled and waved at the man, over the last few days the man had come over twice each day to check on Ashleigh and himself. Before he could move over to the man, the fire behind him flashed green, and his caretaker stepped out of the flames.
The man stood up from his table, followed closely by two others, Harry recognized them immediately as the two that come with Jackson on a few occasions, including the first day they had met. Damian Mitchel, or Mitch as everyone called him, as well as Richard Bones, apparently, he was a distant cousin to the British family of the same name and was a descended of Leticus Bones. The two said their hellos to Harry and Ashleigh, while Jackson spread his arms slightly, and stepped towards the woman for a hug.
She instantly pushed one of his arms down, and stepped past him, muttering something into his ear that Harry couldn't quite catch.
The man frowned at the ground, and Harry watched as his hands clenched and shook. Jackson caught the boys stare out of the corner of his eye, and took a deep breath, sending the boy a slight grin after calming down.
"I'll catch the four of you all later, I need to cover the meeting Ash here is skipping." He tea he'd over, ruffling Harry's hair, laughing at the boys scowl that quickly turned into a grin.
"You can't come with us at all?" Harry had learned to enjoy the mans company, and more than once he had chided his caretaker for her rudeness at times.
"Maybe next time, kid, give these two hell for me though, alright?" the man waggled his fingers at Mitch and Rich before turning away, heading towards the Floo. Harry barely missed the sad look that over took his features before he disappeared into green flames.
"While I'm glad to be out of the office today, was it really necessary to bring the both of us?" Damian questioned as the quartet began to walk through the crowded pub.
Harry made sure to keep one ear on the conversation, as his eyes roamed the bustling Inn. He took in the sites, staring at the same 4 crests that seemed to dot around the walls.
"I've got my event in the next hour, so I'd appreciate it if we could be quick." Damian tried to hurry the group along.
The boy was busy taking in the crests, noting the Cat, Bird, Serpent and quietly began to wonder why a man with a shield was there as well. His eyes finally moved from the walls, taking in the people. The same symbols were also on many peoples clothing, especially the bird, though for some it was much more detailed.
Ashleigh scoffed as the group of four began heading towards a door, "Don't worry, Mitch, your schedule will not be affected, I just asked you along to deliver something to Marcus before everything happens."
Harry was distracted by a group of five as they passed by, two men and three women slammed their tankards together, lifting them high into that air, "Thunder! Thunder! Thunderbirds Caaaaw!" Several people nearby also lifted their glasses or mugs into the air, cheering the group on. Finally, Harry put together that the symbols must be the houses of Ilvermony.
"Harry!" the boy turned, noticing the other three were now standing in a doorway, waving for him to follow along. He turned back to the table he had been watching, and noted that the drinks they had now seemed to glow and spark like electricity. He grinned, one day he would have to try that. He spun around-
"Coming!" He dodged past an incoming couple and joined the rest of his group, grinning up at his care taker who mirrored his look.
"You can try it when you're ready for it, Boot's Ale is only worthy to drink by the bravest of adventurers, you know." There she went again, reading his mind, he narrowed his eyes at the woman and wondered if she had been listening in all morning.
She snorted.
He frowned.
"Enough you two, we've got a deadline," Damian leapt through the open door, throwing his hands out and annoucing, "Welcome, one and all! To Ramble Alley!"
Harry's jaw dropped in awe as he stepped across the threshold, entering the alley proper. Stretching high into the air were skyscrapers with an obvious wizardry flair. Animated stained glass stared down at him, dancers shook, and Mages cast spells.
"Check out the stage on the left, kid." Richard sounded giddy as he patted the boy on the shoulder.
Looking over the boys jaw fell even more as he witnessed two women dueling, fire balls, lightning blasts, and flying tigers spinning through the air. Literal Flying tigers, he wasn't quite sure how they had sprouted wings, but he was awe struck.
"Every Thursday and Monday duels are fought between 10 am and 3 pm. It's normally hard to get into the schedule, but in the past they've allowed grudges to be settled there. There's plenty of healers, and Auror's are always on standby if thing's get out of hand."
Harry watched as one of the women was launched off of her feet, flying through the air and slamming into a wall of multicolored magic. "Is that some sort of ward?"
The lone woman of the group glanced over, staring as the woman slowly unpeeled from the wall and flopped to teh ground with a wet thud. "Embarrassing... but yes, it's mainly used to keep people from entering but as you can see, it makes for an effective wall to bounce your opponent's around. Normally it takes a ward stone and time to set up any ward or barrier, but an experienced Ward Master can have one up in a few seconds with nothing but a few wand waves and some previously prepared stones in their back pocket. You'll learn about it in your Runes class this year."
Harry turned to the woman with a questioning gaze, "Oh, but I didn't take Runes?"
She blinked down at him, matching his look, "Why would you take anything else?"
"Divination sounded interesting?"
"Was that a question or an answer?"
He looked down in embarrassment.
"I thought so. Divination is nice and all, but most people don't have to natural ability to follow through with it. Sure, you can force yourself to have visions with deadly fumes or drug induced dreams, and Scrying is nice too, but for the most part, it's all if it's in your blood or not."
Harry bit his lip.
"At least tell me you took something interesting as your second choice."
Harry rubbed the back of his head as he finally looked back up, "Uh... does Care count?"
She blinked down at him with a blank look causing him to sweat, but with a sigh and a shrug she said, "Could be better but could be worse, at least you'll learn something useful there. But don't worry, I'll contact Wulfric and have your Divination class switched to Runes, you'll thank me later."
Harry sighed, Ron was going to kill him, but at least Hermione would be happy.