Chapter 11: travel

By Wednesday, they still hadn't found Scabbers. Ron was certain he'd locked the rat in before they went outside to play, but he was nowhere to be found. Mrs. Weasley was of the opinion that the rat had wandered off before when he'd been Percy's pet, and had always turned back up. But she also quietly figured that he'd lived an extremely long time for a rat and possibly wandered off to die, and a decade was a pretty good run for a free pet that had lasted through two boys' early Hogwarts years.

Ron was pretty frustrated about it. His normal assumption would be to blame the twins, but they'd been with him almost the entire time, and he couldn't figure out why Fred would have let the rat out while he ran inside to get the Marauder's Map. Ginny had no interest in the fat old rat. All Ron could figure was that he hadn't latched the cage as securely as he thought. He was just hoping his pet turned back up soon.

Over the next few days before the trip to the Alley, they spent a lot of time cleaning up the new hideout. Fred and George surprisingly knew several cleaning charms (for accidental messes and for deliberate messes) that they could teach Harry. Everyone was pretty thrilled about the instancing ability that let them practice spells away from school, and they thought they'd at least gotten the cellar repaired and cleaned to the point it might not immediately get reinfested with gnomes, so they could use it the next summer.

Ginny seemed to know something was up but hadn't called them on it yet (probably just due to her anxiety about getting near Harry). Everyone else seemed oblivious.

And Harry had gotten another rank in his Charms skill!

The morning of the shopping trip, Harry woke to a new quest:

[SIGNING BONUS

Meet Gilderoy Lockhart.

O (Optional) Get your picture in the paper

O (Optional) Say Diagonally instead of Diagon Alley]

"Are we meeting Lockhart?" Harry asked Mrs. Weasley over breakfast.

"I hope so!" she confirmed. "He's supposed to be doing a book signing."

After the meal, she explained that they were going by floo rather than the car, which Harry was happy about because he could check that off of his travel-types quest. When she explained that he needed to say "Diagon Alley" clearly, he got what the his game system had been trying to tell him. Never one to pass up an optional goal, he took the floo powder, threw it in, waited for the fire to turn green, and said, "Diagonally."

After several moments falling through a flaming void, the room he was spit out in was clearly not the Leaky Cauldron. It featured far more skulls and spiders, for one.

He'd also come out at a weird angle and slid across the floor, nearly knocking over a display of creepy rings with miscellaneous eye motifs (and probably only saving his glasses from breaking due to his improved agility score). Some of the eyes glared balefully at him about the near miss. As the objectives to take the floo and to mispronounce his destination checked off, he decided maybe floo was not the travel method for him.

Nobody seemed to notice his arrival in the barely-lit shop, which seemed to be perhaps the most goth place he'd ever seen. As far as he could tell, it was a dark magic book and curio shop.

He gave some real consideration to checking the shelves for skill books. It was only his experience with the dangerous books in Hogwarts' restricted section that stopped him. He did withdraw his invisibility cloak from his inventory and put it on, not sure he wanted to be discovered in such a place.

Thinking maybe the game system just wanted him to know this place existed and planning to sneak out before the Weasleys went mad looking for him, he nearly collided with a man coming into the shop and had to move, invisibly, into a corner.

With the man's platinum hair and smug demeanor, he'd have guessed it was Draco Malfoy's father even without the name plate and even if Harry's school nemesis himself hadn't been just behind. "Don't dawdle, Draco," Mr. Malfoy insisted.

[LUCIUS MALFOY

Warlock, Level 12

[DEATH EATERS,

WIZENGAMOT,

SLYTHERIN]]

[DRACO MALFOY

Mage, Level 2

[SLYTHERIN]]

Of course Malfoy Senior was a Death Eater. Harry wasn't even a little surprised. He figured "Warlock" was also something dark, but on checking the codex, he discovered that was just a Mage/Aristocrat hybrid that was common in wizard government.

Draco was bothering his father for a present and having to be kept from putting his hands all over cursed items. Harry kind of wondered if Draco was some kind of karmic punishment on his father. And, hilariously, most of what Draco was talking about was whining about Harry. He couldn't really remember the last time he'd whined about Draco; it had to have been right after the boy had done something, not after not having seen him for weeks. Mr. Malfoy, in fact, pointed out that Draco had spent all summer complaining about Harry, "...it is not… prudent… to appear less than fond of Harry Potter. Not when most of our kind regard him as the hero that made the Dark Lord disappear– Ah, Mr. Borgin."

[LIAM BORGIN

Procurer, Level 15

[BORGIN AND BURKES,

HUFFLEPUFF]]

Harry checked the codex and found that a Procurer was just a Mage/Salesperson. He wondered whether people knew that the scary, greasy-haired old man running the cursed item shop had been a Hufflepuff, and figured this shop must be Borgin and Burkes.

Mr. Borgin tried hard to point out his sale items, but Malfoy said, "I'm not buying today, Mr. Borgin, but selling." At Borgin's surprise, he explained, "You have heard, of course, that the Ministry is conducting more raids. I have a few… ah… items at home that might embarrass me, if the Ministry were to call." He showed the shopkeep a list on a bit of parchment he'd produced.

As Borgin read over the list, he assumed that the Ministry wouldn't trouble the Malfoys, but Malfoy suggested that Mr. Weasley's Muggle Protection Act was responsible.

"Can I have that?" Draco pointed at a clearly terrible withered hand on a cushion. Harry rolled his eyes. It turned out to be a hand of glory, useful to hold a candle and make light only visible to the wielder. Harry had to actually give it to Draco: if it was less creepy, he might want something like that. When Mr. Malfoy pointed out that Draco needed to get his grades up, Draco complained, "It's not my fault. The teachers all have favorites. That Hermione Granger…"

They nattered on about the supposed purity of wizard blood, and Harry had figured he'd had enough of paying attention to their nonsense. He quietly slipped out of the shop and into a street that was sketchy enough that he was very glad to be invisible. Dark even in a full August morning, a number of black-decked people in hoods were already loitering. Or maybe still loitering. In the field of strange names, he was a little surprised to see Hagrid, and moved toward the gamekeeper, who was walking in the direction of the Weasleys and Hermione (which Harry assumed meant it was the way to actual Diagon Alley). The gigantic, hairy man had a similarly giant level and list of guilds:

[RUBEUS HAGRID

Ranger, Level 16

[ORDER OF THE PHOENIX,

HOGWARTS STAFF,

GRYFFINDOR]]

Now Harry was really curious what the Order was. And Hagrid would probably accidentally tell him. "Hey, Hagrid," Harry said, quickly unequipping the cloak into his inventory as he saw they were exiting across the street from the ice cream parlor. He vaguely remembered passing the dark alley on his first trip, but was glad to be back in a place he recognized.

"Harry!" Hagrid gasped. "Where'd yeh come from?"

"Back there," Harry gestured. "Said the floo name wrong. It's okay. I had my cloak. What's the Order of the Phoenix?"

Blindsided by the non sequitur, Hagrid admitted, "Dumbledore's group. Fer fightin' Death Eaters. How'd yeh know about tha'?"

"Weasleys," Harry shrugged, noting XP going into his Deception skill. "Who I should get back to. Oh, good, there they are. Thanks Hagrid!" And he rushed over to the group, who'd accumulated the Grangers while he was missing, so they were convenient to find.

"Harry! Thank Merlin you're okay!" Mrs. Weasley said.

"I wound up in Borgin and Burkes," Harry gestured. "Hagrid found me. Oh, Mr. Weasley, I saw Lucius Malfoy trying to sell off some dark objects in there."

"I bet he was," Mr. Weasley agreed, frowning. "I've been leading raids for cursed objects, and he probably knew we'd get to him soon enough."

"Is he a Death Eater?" Harry asked.

"Legally, no," he explained. "The courts found that he was under the imperious curse."

"Definitely yes, though," George nodded, figuring that Harry must have seen the guild tag on his name.

"Good to be rich," Fred added.

Percy corrected, "If the Wizengamot found him innocent, though, we must treat him as such." It was clear the aspiring bureaucrat didn't even believe it.

"Enough talk of dark things!" Mrs. Weasley ordered. "Let's get to Gringotts."

Harry looked at Ron, who nodded, remembering the plan. "Mum. After the bank, me and Harry–"

"Harry and I," Percy corrected.

"–should go with Hermione and her parents so we can catch up. And, you know, because she'll want to spend all morning in the bookstore," Ron finished.

Hermione looked at them suspiciously, though she did want to spend all morning in the bookstore. Particularly to test Harry for skill books. But Mrs. Weasley seemed to buy it, and just cautioned, "Remember it might be busy, because of the signing."

"More reason to go early?" Ron shrugged.

"Very well, if it's alright with Helen and Jean," she allowed. The Grangers nodded their agreement, also a bit suspicious about what Harry was up to.

As Harry trailed to the back of the parade of eleven heading to the bank, he explained to Hermione, "Ron broke his wand doing a quest." He had to clamp his hand on her shoulder to keep her from shouting and quickly assured her, "But we have the money to replace it. His mum doesn't know about either. We only told Fred and George about the game."

"Why?" she asked quietly, after suppressing her urge to chastise. "You told my parents."

"They might bring in the Ministry. Or at least Dumbledore. And I still want to learn more before we talk to the teachers," Harry explained. Hermione, also burned by how little help they'd gotten with the Quirrell situation nodded in acceptance. Plus, if the Department of Mysteries started testing Harry's abilities, she wouldn't get to. "Oh, and Lockhart is going to be at the bookstore."

"He's written almost the whole booklist!" Hermione said, excited to meet an author.

The trip through the bank was a whirlwind. Goblins seemed to have the same level range as humans, but their own obscure class names. Harry was a little embarrassed to see how little money was in the Weasley family vault, and rushed into his as quickly as he could, though he was sure Mrs. Weasley saw the pile of gold that he owned. What she didn't see was Harry instantly sucking a few hundred galleons into his inventory as he put his hand into the pile, physically withdrawing only the few dozen coins she suggested for his books and supplies. He figured the money was just as safe and way more accessible in his inventory as it was in his vault.

"Why are we splitting up?" Helen Granger asked, once they had.

"Ron needs a wand and his mum would go spare if she found out he broke it," Hermione summed up. "It wasn't ever a good match for him anyway, so I'm expecting better performance in class Ronald Bilius Weasley," she added.

Ron nodded in acceptance. "It was a hand me down from my brother," he explained to the Grangers.

Helen and Jean shared a look. Wands were only the equivalent of £35. They hadn't realized the Weasleys couldn't afford new for their child's primary tool of magic.

While Ron was being given the wand-and-pony show by Ollivander, Harry quietly caught Hermione up with what they'd learned in the past few days at the Weasleys'.

"Well I want to be a Marauder too," she said.

"You know it's probably a club about playing pranks, right?" Harry checked.

She huffed, not wanting be left out, even if she didn't really care for the subject matter, "Still."

"Okay, you're invited to join the Marauders."

"I accept," she nodded.

[HERMIONE GRANGER HAS JOINED THE MARAUDERS]

"There you go. I don't know what a guild is good for other than letting me know who all is in it," Harry informed her.

"That's still useful information. We should find out more information about your father's friends. If they're inactive and not deceased, that must mean they're still around. They probably could tell you stories," she figured.

Harry nodded, appreciating the idea. Ron showed up beaming, "Still unicorn hair, but longer and willow instead of ash." He showed them his new wand.

"Does it feel different?" Harry checked.

"It's brilliant!" Ron agreed. "I never really felt like Charlie's old wand liked me."

"Unicorn hair is very loyal to its original owner," Mr. Ollivander said, appearing suddenly behind them. "I have tried to tell the older families that passing down wands is economical but not ideal. Your change." He handed Ron a few knuts and showed them out of the shop.

Helen Granger suggested, before Hermione could stomp straight to the bookstore, "Why don't we get the rest of your school supplies? We may never get around to it otherwise."

"Yes, mum," Hermione agreed, sadly. There was already a line forming outside Flourish and Blotts, down the street. She'd probably not get to spend as much time in there as she'd hoped, after all.