Lucy Potter: Harry's little sister

| Year 3 | Chapter 3: A place to stay

"Faster?!" Harry's eyes went wide like tennis balls. "You mean slower, right?!" But he didn't. The bus starts shaping with the space it has. It goes between cars on the road, zigzagging over the busy roads of what I assume is London. Already?!

As we start to go faster, the beds start moving more too. I have to grab the bed firmly in order to stay on the bed. But then at once, the bus brakes. Very abruptly.

"AAHH!" Harry flies forward, as he wasn't focusing enough to hold on. When he lands, at first I'm worried, but when I see he's OK, I can't help but start laughing.

"Very funny," Harry says through gritted teeth. "Yes... very funny!" I laugh and he sits down on the bed again, this time actually holding a grib on the bed.

"Where do we go when we arrive?" Harry asks me. I have no idea where to go, but I suppose we should maybe get money first. "Diagon Alley?"

"It's a bit late for that now," Stan interjects. "All shops're probably closed. There's notthin' to do 'cept at the Leaky Cauldron."

He might be right about that.

We stop and I almost fall over again. This time, it's because we've arrived at our des- tination. "I'll grab your luggage for you," Stan says as he takes our trunks.

Oh no. I already smell the clean, expensive suits and sense the magic around it. That can only mean one thing... "Maybe we should go somewhere else!" I tell Harry, but he doesn't get my hint.

And right I am: as we get out, two wizards from the Ministry of Magic are already waiting for us. "Damn it!" Harry curses as he recognizes one of them. "That's Cornelius Fudge!"

"The Minister of Magic?!" I whisper-shout back. Literally, anyone would be better.

"Aah see, I thought you'd come here!" One of the men steps forward, spreading his arms familiarly. He's not tall, wears the more expensive suit of the two and wears a bowler hat.  "It's good to see you Mr. Potter! Miss Potter too of course!"

"Potter?!" Stan does a double take. Only now does he spot Harry's famous scar and he gasps. "Ernie, they're Harry and Lucy Potter! Ern, come look!" And of course, Ernie appears now too.

"Yes yes, gentlemen, that's enough for now!" The other Minustry man says as he gestures to the former. "Come, let's go inside."

We follow the man with the bowler hat, the Minister, Cornelius Fudge. People greet him with immense respect and the bar tender looks pleased to have such a high-up wizard at the café.

"I don't think we've properly met before. I'm Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic." He extends a hand to Harry. Yeah right, he knows that we know who he is.

Harry shakes the hand and introduces him- self too, as if he doesn't already know. "Nice to meet you Minister," I say as I too, shake his hand.

"Yes, a true pleasure. I'm so glad that you have arrived safely here. Very wise to come here."

"Because of Sirius Black?" Harry asks. Or because he wants to expell us of course. But Fudge nods and talks to the bar tender (Tom). "Can I get a room for these two? Oh and a quiet study would be nice for now as well."

"You want us to stay here tonight?" I ask as we follow Tom. "Don't you want us to go to our friends? We can go to the Weasleys..."

"I'll see to it that they come here," Fudge responds absentmindedly. He sometimes gives me a quick up and down, looking over my scars, I assume, but I try to ignore it. "It's safer not to move too much. Especially you two..."

"Why especially us?" Harry frowns and starts to walk beside Fudge. "Well... because of Sirius Black and all..."

I stop dead in my tracks. "Is he coming for us?" Fudge hisses and turns to me, a sad expression on his face. "I'm affraid so, Miss Potter. He's out for revenge. I had to alert the Muggle authorities too."